Democratic Candidates Call for Antitrust Reform at Heartland Forum in Northwest Iowa

Photo by Damon Dahlen/HuffPost

Last Saturday, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and other Democratic Party presidential hopefuls gathered in Storm Lake, Iowa at the Heartland Forum to present their platforms for revitalizing rural communities. Preceding the forum, a coalition of farming groups held a rally nearby calling for a moratorium on large agricultural mergers and a Farmers Bill of Rights. The two events were widely covered by the national media, underscoring the growing focus by Democratic Party strategists on winning back nonmetro counties that swung hard for Donald Trump in 2016.

HuffPost, Open Markets Action, the Iowa Farmers Union, and The Storm Lake Times hosted the Heartland Forum. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Editor of the Storm Lake Times, Art Cullen, as well as HuffPost reporters Amanda Terkel and Zach Carter, moderated. In addition to Senators Warren and Klobuchar, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, former Congressman John Delaney, and potential-candidate Congressman Tim Ryan spoke at the forum. Moderators and audience members asked questions about environmental protection, gun violence, immigration, and rural health care, but a major theme was corporate consolidation.

All of the speakers called for changes in antitrust policies to lessen the grip of agribusiness over independent farmers and workers. Julián Castro called for appointing regulators to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice who will look beyond the consumer welfare standard that has dominated antitrust enforcement since the 1980s, saying we should “not only concern ourselves with the end consumer price and choice but also what’s happening along the production chain and the impact on smaller businesses within that production chain.”

Amy Klobuchar highlighted consolidation among seed producers and railroads, arguing that it limits farmers’ options for critical services and inputs. She also referenced the 19th century Granger movement among Midwestern farmers, which pressed for the adoption of anti-monopoly law. Klobuchar called for the revival of a similar movement today, saying “we are now entering what is essentially a new Gilded Age.” The Minnesota senator cited her legislation that would raise fees on mergers to better fund antitrust investigations as well as her Consolidation Prevention and Competition Promotion Act, which would change merger review to consider monopsony power and require corporations to prove a merger will not harm competition.

Elizabeth Warren focused largely on powerful agribusiness. Three days before the forum, she released a slate of policy proposals that aim to “break the stranglehold a handful of companies have over the [agricultural] market.” This includes unwinding the Bayer-Monsanto merger, dismantling vertical integration, giving farmers the right to repair their equipment, and prohibiting foreign farmland ownership, among other proposals.

The event prompted several other presidential hopefuls to also lay out policy proposals to take on Big Ag, including some who did not participate in the event. In an op-ed for the Des Moines Register, Senator Bernie Sanders said he would “strengthen antitrust laws that defend farmers from the corporate middlemen” and reverse the Trump administration’s decision to dissolve the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration. Two days before the event, Senator Cory Booker reintroduced the Opportunity for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, which would prohibit agribusiness lobbying groups from receiving federal checkoff program funds.

Congressman John Delaney also announced a rural policy platform called the Heartland Fair Deal in advance of the forum. This twenty-point plan presents policies to address rural economic growth, infrastructure, and health care. Delaney’s proposals also include calls for more research into how agriculture can adapt to climate change, expanded funding for conservation programs, and “[redesigning] anti-trust regulations to address concentration of power in the agriculture economy.”

The morning of the forum, farm groups including Family Farm Action, Farm Aid, National Black Farmers Association, the Association of American Indian Farmers and Wisconsin and Indiana Farmers Unions hosted a rally calling for a Farmers Bill of Rights and a moratorium on large agricultural mergers. The Farmers Bill of Rights would guarantee farmers fair credit access, cap foreign land ownership, reinstate country of origin labeling, and create stronger environmental guidelines for large farm operations, among other principles. As of this week, candidates Warren, Booker, Klobuchar, and Delaney have endorsed the platform.

At the rally, farmers of all ages from Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia spoke to the struggles that they face today as well as their visions for building wealth in rural communities. “We see that consolidation has risen to alarming levels in ag industries,” said Patty Edelburg, Vice President of the National Farmers Union. “Family farm agriculture and our rural communities are definitely at risk, we need our leaders to step up and stand strong in the face of corporate interests.”

For more background on the ways monopolies exercise and abuse their power across the entire food chain, from seeds and meat processing to packaged food and grocery goliaths, read Open Markets new policy report, “Food & Power: Addressing Monopolization in America’s Food System.”

What We're Reading

• In the wake of historic midwestern flooding, the USDA has no disaster relief policy for uninsured crops in storage, reports Reuters. Flood waters destroyed many on-farm grain storage bins, which are exceptionally full due to years of oversupply, persistent low commodity prices, and recent trade disruptions.

• Flooding devastation extends beyond agricultural losses. Midwestern communities from Kansas City to the South Dakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are facing drinking water shortages due to contamination or damage caused by flooding, says The New Food Economy.

• Bayer’s share price has dropped 25 percent in just the past two weeks as more courts rule in favor of plaintiffs claiming that its RoundUp herbicide caused their cancer. Mother Jones reports that an additional 1,600 glyphosate cancer cases await trial.

• Yesterday, Whole Foods announced that they will expand Prime member deals and slash prices for all shoppers on hundreds of products, particularly produce. CNBC has more analysis and Amazon’s full press release.