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Warren And Khanna To Cosponsor Booker’s Farm System Reform Act

By Jacob Wolinsky. Originally published at ValueWalk.

Farm System Reform Act

As Pandemic Exposes Major Weaknesses in Meatpacking Industry, Sen. Warren, Rep. Khanna Cosponsor Sen. Booker’s Farm System Reform Act To Fix Broken System


Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Hyper-consolidation makes food supply chains extremely vulnerable to shocks like pandemics

Announcement comes on heels of Trump’s Executive Order allowing unsafe meat plants to remain open

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the global pandemic exposes the dangers inherent in our highly concentrated food system, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) announced today they will cosponsor Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) Farm System Reform Act. Booker introduced the Farm System Reform Act in the Senate last year and Rep. Khanna announced today that he has officially filed companion legislation in the House.

The announcement comes as the COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the hyper concentration of our food system, in which a few large multinational corporations exert a stranglehold over supply. For example, four companies control nearly 85 percent of the U.S. beef market. Pork and chicken supply are similarly consolidated.

Such concentration makes the food chain extremely fragile. Just last week, after more than a dozen meatpacking plants closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks, President Trump  invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to keep plants open, despite the risks this move places on workers, who often work shoulder to shoulder in inhumane facilities.

The Farm System Reform Act Will Reform This Broken System

The Farm System Reform Act would massively reform this broken system by, among other things, cracking down on the monopolistic practices of multinational meatpackers and corporate integrators, placing a moratorium on new factory farms, and investing heavily in more sustainable food production (which is proving to be the most resilient during the pandemic).

“Our food system was not broken by the pandemic and it was not broken by independent family farmers. It was broken by large, multinational corporations like Tyson, Smithfield, and JBS that, because of their buying power and size, have undue influence over the marketplace and over public policy,” Booker said. “That undue influence was on full display with President Trump’s recent executive order prioritizing meatpacker profits over the health and safety of workers.”

“We need to fix this broken system,” Booker added. “That means protecting family farmers and food system workers and holding corporate integrators responsible for the harm they are causing. Large factory farms are harmful to rural communities, public health, and the environment and we must immediately begin to transition to a more sustainable and humane system.”

Competition In The Agriculture Sector

“For years, regulators looked the other way while giant multinational corporations crushed competition in the agriculture sector and seized control over key markets. The COVID-19 crisis will make it easier for Big Ag to get even bigger, gobble up smaller farms, and lead to fewer choices for consumers,” Warren said. “We need to attack this consolidation head-on and give workers, farmers, and consumers bargaining power in our farm and food system. I’m glad to partner with Senator Booker and Representative Khanna to start reversing the hyper-concentration in our farm economy.”

“Giant meatpackers cannot be permitted to continue to profit off of the labor of family farmers, consolidating the food industry to the point that our supply chain is threatened,” Rep. Ro Khanna said. “Congress must step in to ensure an honest market, or risk losing another historic industry to the hands of big corporations. If we had a food system with fair competition, independent and diversified producers would provide a dependable and sustainable food supply. Folks deserve to know where their animal products are really coming from, and farmers deserve a fair shot in their own business. Proud to work with Senator Booker to level the playing field in American agriculture and keep getting food out to every American.”

A bullet-point summary of the Farm System Reform Act of 2019 can be found here. A section by section explanation of the bill is here, and legislative text is here.

The post Warren And Khanna To Cosponsor Booker’s Farm System Reform Act appeared first on .

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