Corporate Farming

A healthy and stable community depends not on the number of livestock being produced, but on the number of livestock producers living and working there. We work to create genuine opportunity for family farms and ranches.

Industrial agriculture has been defined, even by its proponents, as a system where the farm owner, the farm manager and the farm worker are different people. That's a dramatic change from the historic structure of agriculture, where the people who labor in farming also make the decisions and reap the profits of their work.

Corporate farming leads to closed markets where prices are fixed not by open, competitive bidding, but by negotiated contracts, and where producers who don't produce in large volumes are discriminated against in price or other terms of trade.

Check out our Corporate Farming Notes, below, to learn more about the consequences of industrialization and corporate farming on family farms and ranches.

Corporate Farming Notes

 

Farm Bill Priorities

Agriculture remains an important source of economic opportunity for people in rural areas.

Learn more about our farm bill priorities. We believe the farm bill can support small towns through crop insurance reform, conservation, beginning farmers, and rural development.

Pass a new farm bill before the existing one expires on Sept. 30, 2018.

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PDF icon Farm Bill Priorities

Corporate farming notes: farmers deserve fairness in the livestock industry

By Cora Fox on January 28, 2019 - 8:03am

You may have heard that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) now functions under the purview of the Agricultural Marketing Service, but that’s not all. According to USDA, the rulemaking process for Farmer Fair Practices Rules will re-open in spring 2019. 

Originally introduced by USDA’s GIPSA, the Farmer Fair Practices Rules would have afforded contract producers in the poultry and livestock industries with basic fairness protections. 

In brief, the rules would have: 

Corporate farming notes: increased FSA loan limits benefit large operations

By Cora Fox on August 3, 2018 - 1:22pm

Even though farming has become increasingly expensive, from land value to input costs, some farm groups have demanded an increase in Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan limits. Recent farm bill proposals from Congress responded to those demands. However, nearsightedness regarding farm loans can cause more harm than good, as there are pitfalls. These may severely impact those who need FSA farm loans the most: our beginning and historically underserved farmers and ranchers.

Senate farm bill is promising, but has concerns

By Anna Johnson on June 12, 2018 - 11:45am

The Senate Agriculture Committee has released a bipartisan bill that provides important support for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. However, there is room for improvement.

While it would strengthen the underlying policy for conservation programs, it proposes to cut funding for working lands conservation. The bill would also offer greater permanency for many programs for beginning farmers and rural development by combining certain programs.

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