J.D. Scholten, one of the Democrats running for US Senate, says it’s time to bust up the monopolies that control America’s food supply and are driving small and medium farmers out of business.
Scholten says 90% of Iowa hog farms have gone out of business in the past 40 years — while farmers only get about 14-cents of every dollar Americans spend on food. Scholten is also calling for more federal support of on-farm conservation practices and locally grown food.
Scholten visited a central Iowa farm and released a wide-ranging farm policy platform Monday. He says 10% of the wealthiest farm operations get 70% of USDA commodity payments and that system must be reformed. Scholten’s also skeptical of farm check-off programs that require farmers pay a portion of their profits from the sale of commodities.
Scholten says the federal government should have never allowed pork producer Smithfield to be purchased by a Chinese company or allowed Brazil-based JBS to buy Swift and other meatpacking companies. He’s also calling for rejection of Union Pacific’s acquisition of the Norfolk Southern railroad and changes that would make it easier for farmers to get a commercial trucking license.
Scholten says he’s frustrated the Obama Administration didn’t do more to address monopolies in the agricultural sector. And he objects to the first Trump Administration’s decision to move the country’s main anti-monopoly enforcers into the agency they’re supposed to police.
