Agricultural News
National Farmers Union President Rob Larew on the Fairness for Farmers Campaign, Helping Farmers get their Fair Share
Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:44:05 CST
Fairness for Farmers is a nationwide campaign run by National Farmers Union. We are fighting for stronger enforcement of antitrust laws and breaking up the corporate monopolies that use their size to unfairly take advantage of farmers and ranchers while forcing consumers to pay higher prices at the grocery store.
National Farmers Union President Rob Larew was a Guest Speaker at this Past weekend's AFR/OFU 117th Convention. Oklahoma Farm Report's KC Sheperd caught up with Larew to talk about the campaign and important issues that NFU has been working on.
Larew says With less diversity across the agriculture industry, multinational corporations have too much control over pricing and offerings, "Farmers Union has been trying to highlight a number of issues that are getting attention right now, and we want to see some real reform."
Larew says they are trying to highlight the fact that we have such a concentrated ag industry across the board and want to make that better for Farmers and to avoid the "Chickenization" of the market, "Look, this is something that we've seen progressively happening in the livestock industry across the US. You first had it in poultry, the fact that you had this vertical integration, you have so few players in the marketplace, so farmers who are contracting there, maybe they'll have a fair shake, maybe they won't. We know that there are a lot of questions there. There are zero cash markets, there's zero, really competition in that market."
Larew said the Pork industry has a lot of contracts there, "That industry is also kind of approaching this same kind of chickenization, So I think that's part of the concern here; Are independent Rangers going to be truly independent out there? If we don't bring some fairness back to this marketplace and start shining some light on these markets. Um, then I worry that we will see a chickenization of the rest of Agriculture."
Supply chain issues have also proven to be an obstacle for producers right now, and Larew says This makes the food supply chain vulnerable to bottlenecks and breakdowns. Larew says they are working through some of those issues. " But I think what they also showed is when you have a system that is just dependent on efficiencies and trying to get product there a and of course the US, you know, is able to get so much good quality food out there and so many different ways. When you have an issue like a pandemic, or it could be a dangerous climate issue in the future, whatever that next kind of supply chain problem is going to be, having a more resilient system is for the better for consumers, better for farmers. We need to make sure that those throughout the supply chain can adjust to that."
Larew said the Fairness for Farmers Campaign is trying to make sure that consumers understand a couple of things about where their food comes from, "Number one, why their costs are going up and up and up while farmers are receiving less and less of that food dollar. We know that the system is not working properly for them or for farmers and ranchers. We know that money in the marketplace is going somewhere, but it's not benefiting consumers, and it's not benefiting farmers and ranchers. And so this education effort will continue out there. We think it'll be key to getting some real change."
Larew said the way to make sure farmers get their fair share is to take some real action, "We've got a little bit of "happy talk" about some change out there, but we need to see it come to fruition. We know that USDA is getting ready to issue new regulations to make clear rules for livestock markets. We know that the White House has also challenged the Department of Justice to enforce antitrust laws. We need to hold everybody's feet to the fire to make sure that these promises that they're making right now actually get followed through."
Larew said this is a very bipartisan issue, "This can't be just a Democratic issue, a Republican issue. And farmers and makers out there don't care about that anyway; they just want to make sure that they have a fair shake and that their communities can remain strong. So that is just a non-partisan issue; It's about fairness."
To hear KC's complete conversation with Rob Larew about fairness in the marketplace and what he would like to see on the 2023 Farm Bill, click or tap below.
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