Serfs On Their Own Land

Today, the New York Times reported that "the fall in longer-term bond yields has not been matched by a fall in shorter-term rates. For example, a 30-day Treasury bill is yielding 2.35 percent-- meaning you can earn more on your money tying it up for a month risk-free than you can tying it up for a full decade. This is not normal. It is called an inverted yield curve, and historically it has been viewed as a sign of a recession in the offing. At a minimum, it indicates that bond investors believe the Federal Reserve will soon need to cut interest rates-- in effect, that it overshot with those four rate increases last year." Combine that with a report from Bloomberg News that China has stop buying soy beans from the U.S. and you have a gloomy outlook for American farmers, one that other than Bernie, none of the 2020 candidates-- including Trump-- are paying much attention to.

Bernie: "I will not write off rural America." He never has; he may have been born and educated in Brooklyn but Vermont is 70% rural and small town and Bernie has been an effective advocate for family farms for his entire political career. And he's very popular in Iowa-- running even with Obama's rib. He's been campaigning there on all his regular issues but emphasizing protecting rural Iowa-- almost as rural as Vermont (51%)-- from monopolization, factory farms and Climate Change. His plan for rural America promises to increase anti-trust enforcement, to block monopolistic mergers, to ban contract farming, to protect farmers from "patent lawsuits from seed corporations," to give more farm subsidies to small and mid-size farms to restrict foreign ownership of farmland, to stop exempting factory farms from anti-pollution rules and to punish farms that create herbicide drift and pollute organic farms. His plan must have given Pelosi's Agriculture Committee chair, Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), a seizure.

Bernie has a well-thought out plan for revitalizing rural America. "Agriculture today," he wrote, "is not working for the majority of Americans. It is not working economically for farmers, it is not working for rural communities, and it is not working for the environment. But it is working for big agribusiness corporations that are extracting our rural resources for profit.

"For far too long, government farm policies have incentivized a “get big or get out” approach to agriculture. This approach has consolidated the entire food system, reducing farm net income, and driving farmers off the land in droves. As farms disappear, so do the businesses, jobs, and communities they support.

"Moreover, one in six American children still live in food-insecure homes, industrial agriculture has taken a toll on the environment, and our rural communities have been left in a chronic state of economic decline and decay.

"Our mid-size and small towns have been decimated. Local businesses were replaced with national chains, many schools and hospitals shut down, and good jobs left at an alarming rate. The next generation of rural Americans is finding better opportunities outside of the small towns where they grew up in.

"Fundamental change in America’s agricultural and rural policies is no longer just an option; it’s an absolute necessity. Farmers, foresters, and ranchers steward rural landscapes, which benefit all Americans. They provide us with essential resources such as food, fiber, building materials, renewable energy, clean water, and habitat for biodiversity. They also have an enormous potential to address climate change. With the right support and policies, we can have rural communities that are thriving economically and ecologically. The following policies will drive a transition in our agricultural system away from a consolidated, profit-driven industrial model to one that rebuilds and restores rural communities."

• Policies Leveling the Playing Field for Farmers and Farmworkers
• Policies to Empower Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems
• Policies to Foster Investment to Revitalize Rural Communities

First and foremost, Bernie has called for the country to "enact and enforce Roosevelt-style trust-busting laws to stop monopolization of markets and break-up existing massive agribusinesses; Place a moratorium on future mergers of large agribusiness corporations and break-up existing massive agribusinesses. According to Food & Water Watch, 'consolidation in the pork packing industry has contributed to the 82% decline in the number of hog farms in Iowa between 1982 and 2007.' In our country, just four companies slaughter 85% of beef cattle. USDA reports that between 2000 and 2015 'soybean sales from the largest four sellers rose from 51 to 76%.' Additionally, after the Bayer-Monsanto merger, the two largest conglomerates now control 78% of the corn seed market. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, you know what he would say to these behemoth agribusiness companies: He would say, break them up. And, working together, that is exactly what we are going to do."