National Farmers Union Announces Campaign to Fight Monopolies

WASHINGTON – On Sept. 22, the National Farmers Union, a national organization advocating on behalf of nearly 200,000 American farm families and their communities, launched Fairness for Farmers. This campaign seeks to rally Americans to urge their Congressional leaders and the Biden administration to take concrete steps to curtail consolidation in agriculture, which negatively impacts farmers, ranchers and consumers. At today’s press conference, NFU President Rob Larew, Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer, and Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish, were joined by Montana Senator John Tester and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, both leaders for strengthening America’s antitrust laws, and protecting working families. 

“Today, we launched the Fairness for Farmers campaign. This endeavor has clear goals: to curtail consolidation in agriculture and bust the monopolies, which hurts farmers, ranchers and consumers,” said Rob Larew, NFU President. He added: “We launched Fairness for Farmers because we have a President who is committed to taking on the challenge of fighting consolidation in agriculture. We are all buoyed by President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on ‘Promoting Competition in the Marketplace’ — a commitment from his Administration to restore fairness to our economy.” 

Fairness for Farmers is a national campaign that seeks to engage farmers and ranchers to fight for an economy that rewards hard work and ensures fair agricultural markets by: 

·Encouraging farmers and ranchers to share videos of their stories online

· Advertising campaigns, both digital and radio

· Working with NFU members across the nation to engage local media

· Building national coalitions to support lawmakers and regulators in the anti-trust space to fight for strengthening our pro-competition laws and regulations

· Educating lawmakers, the media and the American people about our broken food system that allows monopolies to cheat farmers and ranchers, and charge consumers higher prices at the grocery store

NFU is calling for these solutions:

· Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) reform

· Improving price discovery and ensuring fair and accurate market information

· Facilitating competition and more diverse market opportunities

· Reinvigorated antitrust enforcement

Larew added: “I do believe we are in for a fight. The giants who dominate our food and agriculture industry are not going to be toppled without a struggle.” He concluded: “But Farmers Union members, and everyone who joined me today, are not afraid of a fight and are ready to stand up for fairness.”

For more information, please visit the Fairness for Farmers webpage by clicking here or visiting this link: https://nfu.org/fairness-for-farmers/