“Noncompete clauses enable corporations to hold workers hostage and entrench monopsony power,” said Joseph Van Wye, Farm Action’s Policy and Outreach Director.
Our public comment calls on USDA to prioritize equitable and farmer-led conservation proposals as it implements funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
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.
In a public comment, Farm Action commended the Justice Department for putting a stop to corporate abuse and taking a critical step toward restoring competition in poultry markets.
Instead of pouring funding into high-tech projects that don’t demonstrably reduce carbon or improve environmental conditions (but do give corporations good talking points for their ads), we should be supporting grassroots and farmer-led conservation and regeneration initiatives.
The National Strategy aims to implement policy solutions for this crisis, and includes several measures recommended by Farm Action.
Farm Action’s comments to the USDA state that any ranking system that lacks a fixed base price violates the law. “Unfairness is at the rotten heart of the tournament system, which punishes farmers for circumstances that only the corporations control,” said Farm Action’s Sarah Carden.
Farm Action joined other advocates in laying out core values that must be reflected in the upcoming legislation, which has the power to reshape the food system.
The tournament system is intrinsically unfair because it lacks a base price guarantee. Furthermore, growers’ bonuses are not paid by the company, but are instead docked from other growers’ paychecks.