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LSP: Executive Order on Promoting Economic Competition Important Step for Addressing Corporate Control of Ag

August 2, 2021

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) applauded the White House’s recent signing of an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, and sees it is an important step toward addressing a legacy of corporate control in our food and farm system.

The executive order, which was issued July 9, directs the USDA  to consider issuing  new rules under the Packers and Stockyards Act to provide additional protections to livestock farmers. It also encourages the USDA to develop a plan to  increase opportunities for farmers to access markets and receive a fair return, and calls on the Department to consider issuing new rules that close current loopholes allowing meat that was born, raised and slaughtered in another country to be labeled as a “Product of the USA” if it was processed in the United States.  The Packers and Stockyards Act, a 100-year-old law, was originally designed to protect poultry and hog farmers and cattle ranchers from unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive practices in meat markets.

Beth Slocum, an LSP member who raises livestock in Goodhue County, Minn., said the Biden Administration needs to address the fact that corporate consolidation in the meat sector has negative impacts on packing plant workers and consumers, as well as farmers.

“Increased line speeds in the packing plants and an unwillingness to immediately protect workers from the pandemic brought this corporate system to a halt and shut out contract producers who were in line to have their animals slaughtered and processed, causing thousands of animals to be euthanized, shorting our food supply and raising consumer prices,” she said. “On top of that, many small, local processing plants have gone out of business because of corporate consolidation in the food system. This ends up costing us, the local independent livestock producers, more.”

Kristin Tombers, owner of Clancey’s Meats in Minneapolis, said consolidation in the food system never has positive implications for small and midsized farmers.

“For a brief period during the pandemic, people realized the fragility of a corporate-controlled food supply chain,” she said. “As a small retail meat shop, we talked to farmers that had nowhere to go with their animals, and we heard from small processors about the pressure and barriers they faced having to turn away customers with no alternatives. Small and midsized farmers provide stewardship of the land for our own health and the health of the planet, and their critical role should be acknowledged and supported.”

Excessive corporate control in our food system jeopardizes the viability of thriving rural communities and the opportunity to build resilient and equitable food systems, said Bonnie Haugen, an LSP member and dairy farmer from Fillmore County, Minn. Mega-dairies often receive volume discounts from processors, flooding the market and sending milk prices plummeting while leaving fewer opportunities for small and midsized dairies to get a fair price for their milk.

“Corporate control of the food system negatively affects our farm by making us a price taker instead of having  the opportunity to be a price maker,” she said. “We milk 150 cows and do have a cooperative willing to buy our milk this year, but we wonder about security. Some farms have not gotten much notice before they were dropped off the milk pick-up route.  If that  happened to us, we  may be forced to quit  milking, and the timing could be financially disastrous.”

The executive order also “encourages” the Federal Trade Commission to  limit powerful equipment manufacturers from restricting people’s ability to use independent repair shops or do DIY repairs, which could have a major impact on farmers’ ability to affordably maintain their equipment.

LSP is committed to supporting a food system where diversified small- and medium-sized farms can thrive, and the health of all rural people is a priority, said LSP organizer Sarah Goldman, adding that the organization’s members and staff will be monitoring the implementation of the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.

“The interconnected problems plaguing small and midsized farms and rural communities for years, including fragile supply chains, underpaid and unprotected food chain workers, and untenable economic conditions for independent family farms, are rooted in a system that values corporate profits over people,” she said.

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The Land Stewardship Project is a 39-year-old membership organization that works to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop healthy communities. LSP has offices in the Minnesota communities of Lewiston, Montevideo and south Minneapolis. 

Category: News Releases
Tags: competition • corporate control • Federal Trade Commission • market concentration • meatpacking • mega-dairies • Packers and Stockyards Act • regional food systems • USDA

Contact

Sarah Goldman, LSP policy organizer, e-mail, 612-400-6341

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The Environmental & Economic Clusters of Opportunity (EECO) grant provides an ecosystem services payment as well as risk management payments to growers enrolled in the program for winter barley, hybrid winter rye, winter camelina, and Kernza. Join us for an introductory webinar series on these four crops where we pair University researchers and Extension professionals with farmers who have trialed these crops on-farm. On June 7, there will be a webinar on winter camelina. Presenters include Matthew Ott (UMN post doc researcher, camelina genetics) and Anne Schwagerl (farmer, Browns Valley, Minn.).

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Forever Green Webinar on Kernza
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Forever Green Webinar on Kernza

The Environmental & Economic Clusters of Opportunity (EECO) grant provides an ecosystem services payment as well as risk management payments to growers enrolled in the program for winter barley, hybrid winter rye, winter camelina, and Kernza. Join us for an introductory webinar series on these four crops where we pair University researchers and Extension professionals with farmers who have trialed these crops on-farm. The June 13 webinar on Kernza features Jake Jungers (UMN assistant professor), Prabin Bajgain (UMN assistant professor) and Jay Peterson (farmer, Blooming Prairie, Minn.)

To sign up for the June 13 webinar on Kernza, click here. These presentations will be recorded for future viewing if you’re not able to make it.

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Upper Sioux State Park Land Return Listening Sessions & Planning Forward

On April 5,there was a historic town hall meeting in Granite Falls where regional residents and Upper Sioux Community members came together to learn about the Upper Sioux Community’s history, relationship, and desires for the return of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Upper Sioux Community. We also were able to ask questions of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources representatives and local elected officials, as well other community members. A proposal to return the state park land to the Upper Sioux Community was officially passed by the Minnesota Legislature during its recently concluded session.

We were encouraged by how we saw our neighbors respond to this proposal, being for the most part supportive of the return.We also heard how important and precious access to green spaces is to all of us who live here, and that many of us have deep connections and relationships with that park.

Please come and share your stories of connection and relationship to the Upper Sioux Agency State Park; we want to understand and honor our connection to this place and channelour passion for the area. We want to think as a community where we might be able to create new public access acres in the river valley with the funds allocated for replacement.Let’s beready and united to advocate locally for these green acres!

Join us on Tuesday, June 13, and/or Wednesday, June 28, at the Granite Falls Kilowatt Community Center (600 Kilowatt Drive, Granite Falls, MN 5624), from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., for a light meal, and to share our stories and link arms to create new parkland in western Minnesota.

This event is free and open to the public, but food can only be guaranteed for those who register in advance. Please clickhere to register for June 13and/orhere to register for June 28.

Please contact Robin Moore atrmoore@landstewardshipproject.orgor 320-321-5244 if you have any questions.

This event is organized and hosted in partnership with The YES! House with Department of Public Transformation.

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Forever Green Webinar on Hybrid Winter Rye

The Environmental & Economic Clusters of Opportunity (EECO) grant provides an ecosystem services payment as well as risk management payments to growers enrolled in the program for winter barley, hybrid winter rye, winter camelina, and Kernza. Join us for an introductory webinar series on these four crops where we pair University researchers and Extension professionals with farmers who have trialed these crops on-farm. On June 14, there will be a webinar on hybrid winter rye. Presenters include Jochum Wiersma (UMN Extension small grains agronomist) and Richard Magnusson (farmer, Roseau, Minn.)

To sign-up for the June 14 webinar on hybrid winter rye, click here. These presentations will be recorded for future viewing if you’re not able to make it.

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