Documents Reveal Lack of Oversight and Misuse of Funds in USDA Checkoff Programs
Internal documents reveal that the USDA failed to meet legal oversight requirements for checkoff programs and enabled the misuse of funds.
Internal documents reveal that the USDA failed to meet legal oversight requirements for checkoff programs and enabled the misuse of funds.
Farm Action’s letter to FTC and DOJ lays out new evidence on how the highly concentrated egg industry is ripe for manipulation by the dominant egg firms at the expense of both consumers and smaller egg producers.
The letter expresses support for Vice President Harris’s proposal to implement a federal ban on food price gouging, which has been enabled by high levels of concentration and a lack of competition across food and agriculture sectors.
In a letter to the president, the advocacy groups said that USDA must swiftly restore the P&S Act to ensure our nation’s farmers and ranchers can thrive.
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 Van Wye said any increases in Price Loss Coverage reference prices will ultimately be captured by just a few large corporations, and urged Congress to tackle monopoly power instead.
Increasing reference prices will ultimately benefit just a few large corporations, further entrenching their power, said Farm Action and allied groups.
In response to record-high egg prices and just before testifying before the FTC, Farm Action urged the agency to open an investigation.
Farm Action’s letter urges the USDA to use changing priorities in agriculture to the benefit of farmers, instead of catering to multinational corporations.
Farm Action’s statement asserted that under no conditions should the merger be allowed to proceed, due to the manifold catastrophic effects it would have on farmers, workers, consumers, and our food system.