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What a Good President Would Do --
That Would Really Help Family Farmers by Darvin Bentlage, Barton County, Missouri Garry Klicker, Davis County, Iowa Darwyn Bach, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota |
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| We are bitterly disappointed by the lack of leadership President Obama and the White House have demonstrated regarding America’s farm families and rural communities. Major case in point -- a proposed rule to increase competition in the livestock industry has been delayed under this President for almost two years. As family farmers, we see the trends in agriculture, aided by federal policy, that have led us to greater concentration and consolidation in many sectors of the industry. Whether it’s corporate livestock operations, massive cropping operations with tens of thousands of acres, undue influence of corporate agribusiness lobbyists, or what amounts to monopolies in meatpacking and food processing -- these trends are not good for rural economies or our country. Who has benefited from these trends? While huge meatpackers and food processors frequently report massive profits, family farm livestock producers ride a rollercoaster of prices that are poor more often than good. Our nation has lost hundreds of thousands of livestock farmers. With the loss of those thousands of farming operations, went thousands of additional good rural jobs that were dependent upon them. Farmers’ share of the retail dollar has drastically decreased, and consumers haven’t won either as food prices continue to increase. A good President would work to promote a path that provides for more families producing the food and fiber of our nation and sharing in the wealth generated from agriculture. If there isn’t leadership, we’ll have fewer people in agriculture and more people on the brink of economic disaster. We need good jobs that sustain people, farm families and a thriving middle class. The President has failed to issue real reforms that would establish fair rules in the marketplace in the buying and selling of livestock between meatpackers and family farmers. In the face of extreme corporate concentration, this lack of government action on the behalf of family farmers just means more of what we’ve got: massive consolidation, fewer choices and opportunities, and secret agreements between packers and their favored livestock suppliers. That leaves the bulk of American livestock producers out in the cold, raising and selling livestock for terms, conditions, and prices that do not keep pace. Before taking office, President Obama told the American people he would "Prevent Anticompetitive Behavior against Family Farms" and enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, yet that commitment has been all but forgotten. In the last Farm Bill, Congress instructed USDA to clarify that Act to prevent undue preferences being given by corporate meatpackers in buying livestock -- in other words establish a fair marketing rule. A proposed rule was released over a year ago and more than 60,000 comments were submitted, with the vast majority in favor. However, the rule is apparently now being blocked by the White House. And this isn’t the only thing the Obama White House promised and hasn’t delivered on. The President said he would expand conservation programs such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, and instead has proposed major cuts in his past two budgets. He said he would limit taxpayer dollars from going to (CAFOs) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations through programs like EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), but that hasn’t been stopped. And he said he would close commodity program loopholes that have enabled mega crop farms to get around the limits, but that hasn’t happened either. The lack of political will to issue the livestock marketing rule is simply the latest case in a series of broken promises. What would a good President do?
We need a good President in these times. The steps forward are clear. |
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Published in In Motion Magazine October 22, 2011. |
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