Toolkit for Congress to Tackle the Food Monopoly Crisis

Farm Action (formerly Family Farm Action Alliance) has developed a comprehensive toolkit for the 117th Congress to tackle the dangerous levels of consolidation in today’s food system. Our policy recommendations are based on conclusions from the pivotal report, “The Food System: Concentration and Its Impacts,” authored by leading food system experts Dr. Mary Hendrickson, Dr. Phil Howard, Emily Miller, and Dr. Doug Constance.

This toolkit sets out a course of action for Congress to implement change in “The Food System” report’s six key points of intervention:

Curbing Globalized Concentration: We must ensure the power to make decisions about the agrifood system lies in the hands of those who produce and consume food directly.
Implementing Anti-Racist Food and Farm Policy: Historic discrimination and exploitation of BIPOC farmers, ranchers, and workers must be actively addressed and remedied.
Prioritizing Resilience, Not Efficiency: Policy to increase competition, independence, social justice, and success of smaller entities will ensure a long-lasting, resilient agrifood system.
Redefining the Status Quo: Everything from property rights, to feeding livestock, to rural development must be rethought in ways that acknowledge social and ecological consequences.
Supporting Local and Regional Food Systems: As we rein in the power held by industrial agricultural corporations, we must simultaneously build a support system for farmers, ranchers, workers, and communities.
Transitioning to a Just and Resilient Agrifood System: As we transition to a brighter food system, we must not pull out the rug beneath farmers and ranchers stuck in the endless cycles of contracting and debt imposed by industrial agricultural interests.

Download the Toolkit

Policy Recommendations to the 117th Congress: an introduction to the issues and a deep dive into specific policy recommendations.

Concise action steps for each point of intervention: walks elected officials through three levels of action they can choose to take, including refiling or co-sponsoring previously developed legislation, pushing for administrative action, or becoming a champion of an issue area.

Table of legislative packages filed previously: highlights points of intervention contained in each.

Get Involved

The time for Congress to address the corporate consolidation crisis is now. In 2017, polling showed that 65% of people saw corporate monopolies as a big problem, and in 2020 that number had grown to 87%. Our research provides Congress with evidence of why they must take swift action to bring justice to our food system, and our policy toolkit leaves no room for inaction.

Today, corporate power controls our food policy, and we urge you to join us in fighting back. Review the toolkit and push your member of Congress to take action on the issues that will be most impactful for your community. Please contact us for more information.