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

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.

Government examines farm program payment abuse in recently released report

By Cora Fox on June 11, 2018 - 12:30pm

Each year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes billions of dollars in total payments to farmers across the country. They rely on these payments as part of a strong safety net, which helps them mitigate the steep risk that comes with working in the agricultural sector. Congress historically put in place some common sense limits on farm program payments, but left open notable loopholes that damage their integrity and effectiveness.

Farm bill fails to pass House; rural America wins, for now

By Brian Depew on May 18, 2018 - 12:30pm

Today, the House of Representatives failed to pass H.R. 2, its draft of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, commonly known as the farm bill. Representatives voted 198 in favor and 213 against.

This is a win for rural America, as the bill’s proposals were a giant step in the wrong direction.

The draft included eliminating the Conservation Stewardship Program and cut funds for working lands conservation by nearly $5 billion over 10 years.

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