Farm Action Urges Checkoff Reform at White House Convening on Agriculture Competition
Farm Action President Angela Huffman said it’s time to reform checkoffs to shift power from consolidated corporate interests back to U.S. farmers and ranchers.
Farm Action President Angela Huffman said it’s time to reform checkoffs to shift power from consolidated corporate interests back to U.S. farmers and ranchers.
USDA has not accounted for three years of spending by the nation’s largest checkoff program, which collects mandatory funds from struggling dairy farmers.
Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell said the deal would give Bunge control over ports and grain terminals, and could create bottlenecks in the agricultural supply chain.
Farm Action’s President Angela Huffman says this plan could prevent fraud that deceives consumers and stunts the growth of local and regional food systems.
The farmer, rancher, consumer, labor, farmworker, and faith organizations urged the Appropriations Committee to remove a policy rider preventing USDA from advancing proposed rules to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act.
The rule would enable consumers to find meat products bred and raised in the U.S., shifting spending toward independent producers and growing local economies.
Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell and Sarah Carden feature in this series on how chemical fertilizers have changed agriculture — harming communities, farmers, and the planet along the way.
Independent grocers and farmers are driven out of business as mega-retailers take over, negatively impacting everyone except company shareholders.
Farm Action is “leading the charge” to reshape the farm bill so that it prioritizes the production of food for people — instead of feed for corporate-controlled livestock.
So few firms control so much of our food system that “the basic supply and demand market dynamics cannot function,” said Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell. And now consumers are paying the price.