DES MOINES, IOWA (March 30, 2019) — In furthering his longtime work to help lift up our nation’s rural communities, this week Sen Cory Booker doubled down on his efforts to help empower Iowa’s family farmers. SUPPORTING FARMERS BILL OF RIGHTS
At today’s Family Farm Action’s forum in Storm Lake, Sen Booker announced his support for the Farmers Bill of Rights, a series of commitments that will restore opportunity and competition in rural communities across the country.
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR FARMERS
This week, Sen Booker also renewed an effort to help level the playing-field for small family farmers by reforming the way the federal government spends money on national advertising programs to promote farmers’ products. TARGETING AG CONSOLIDATION
Ahead of today’s Family Farm Action’s forum, Cory sat down with Radio Iowa’s Kay Henderson to discuss his efforts to address corporate consolidation in the agriculture industry.
RADIO IOWA: Rural issues showcased on the Iowa campaign trail
During a recent Radio Iowa interview, New Jersey Sen Cory Booker said mega-mergers are creating real problems for family farmers. “You have three firms that control about two-thirds of all the crop seeds, 70 percent of all the chemicals used in agriculture,” Sen Booker said. “That’s a tremendous concentration of power.” Last August Booker proposed a moratorium on all corporate mergers. He argues federal anti-trust laws designed to prevent monopolies aren’t being followed. Booker said the result is stagnant wages while corporate profits are at an 80 year high. [Read more.]
