BILL: Should We Protect Small-Scale Farmers? - Fairness for Small-Scale Farmers and Ranchers Act - S.2670

The Bill

S.2670 - Fairness for Small-Scale Farmers and Ranchers Act

Bill Details

• Sponsored by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) on July 27, 2023
• Co-sponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
• Committee: Senate - Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
• House: Not yet voted
• Senate: Not yet voted
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• Re-establishes an agricultural system that works for small farmers by halting mergers of big agriculture businesses. These mergers have negatively impacted the livelihood of small-scale farmers and ranchers. The moratorium will last until the problem of market consolidation is addressed through comprehensive legislation.
• Requires the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to consider whether to unwind mergers if they are determined to have materially harmed competition nationally or in local markets, farmers or ranchers, workers, or consumers. 
• Strengthens antitrust laws across the agricultural sector. 
• Restores mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef and pork products.

What's in the Bill

Supports family farms

• Protects and promotes family businesses from takeovers and encroachments by big agribusinesses.
• Extends funding for Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), a one-stop-shop at USDA that makes it easier for farmers to receive support for local and regional food projects. 
• Authorizes $100 million over five years for outreach programs and assistance to new, retiring, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Offers more consumer choice

• Promotes more meaningful consumer choices by promoting smaller farmers, niche agricultural products, and organic alternatives.

Supports ranchers

• Forbids certain practices in livestock buying and selling. These include contracts without a firm base price.
• Protects small farmers and ranchers from retaliation. Requires the USDA to crack down on unfair and anti-competitive business practices from large meat and poultry processors.
• Frees up USDA Rural Development grants to fund small meat processing facilities. 

What Supporters Are Saying

• Sen. Welch said:

“The wellbeing and vitality of farms across America is under threat from big corporations and farm consolidation. We can’t let that happen.”  

• Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said:

“Our food system used to work better – everyday consumers saw lower prices, and small farmers and ranchers were taken care of. But in the last few decades, there’s been a huge concentration of power amongst the biggest companies, who are making enormous profits at the expense of workers, local farmers, ranchers, and consumers."

• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said:

“Lack of competition has corrupted the entire food supply chain: from seed and fertilizer production to big agribusinesses that drive out small family farms and force workers to endure egregious conditions. This is unacceptable. We must reverse these disturbing trends and cultivate a food and farm system that works for everyone.” 

• It is endorsed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Farm Action Fund, Farm Aid, National Education Association, National Family Farm Coalition, National Farmers Union, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, among others.

What Opponents Are Saying

• Ted Nordhaus, co-author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, wrote in Foreign Policy:

"Dependence on large farms is not a conspiracy by big corporations. Without question, the U.S. food system has many problems. But persistent misperceptions about it, most especially among affluent consumers, are a function of its spectacular success, not its failure.

Any effort to address social and environmental problems associated with food production in the United States will need to first accommodate itself to the reality that, in a modern and affluent economy, the food system could not be anything other than large-scale, intensive, technological, and industrialized."

Tell your reps to support or oppose this bill

—Emma Kansiz 

(Photo Credit: Canva)