1. Break up big agribusinesses that have a stranglehold on farmers and rural communities. According to Food & Water Watch, “consolidation in the pork packing industry has contributed to the 82 percent decline in the number of hog farms in Iowa between 1982 and 2007.” In our country, just four companies slaughter 85 percent of beef cattle. USDA reports that between 2000 and 2015 “soybean sales from the largest four sellers rose from 51 to 76 percent.” Additionally, after the Bayer-Monsanto merger, the two largest conglomerates now control 78 percent of the corn seed market. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, he would say, “break them up.” And, working together, that is exactly what we are going to do. This is consistent with our Revitalizing Rural America plan.
2. Ensure farmers are paid a fair price for their products with tools like supply management and grain reserves. Current farm programs promote over-production, which comes with harmful and unnecessary climate pollution emissions. We will enact supply management programs to prevent shortages and surpluses to ensure farmers make a living wage and ensure consumers receive a high-quality, stable, and secure supply of agricultural goods. We will discourage over production and ensure farmers receive a fair price for their products by matching the supply with demand.We will also establish a program to permanently set aside ecologically fragile farm and ranch land. This will minimize the impact on the environment by not producing more food than is needed, and ensures we have a reserve of food in case of natural disaster or emergency. We will also realign our trade policies to ensure farmers maintain access to markets.
3. Re-establish a national grain and feed reserve to help alleviate the need for government subsidies and ensure we have a food supply in case of extreme weather events. As we saw with the most recent flooding in the Midwest, we can lose a huge amount of agricultural land and goods in a single weather event.
4. Transition toward a parity system to guarantee farmers a living wage. That means setting price floors and matching supply with demand so farmers are guaranteed the cost of production and family living expenses.

Sources: Sanders

Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems – BS