Sixty-five organizations have signed a letter in favor of including such a Competition Title. Family farmers ultimately derive their income from the agricultural marketplace. These independent producers have always been in a position of weakness in selling their product to large processors and in buying their inputs from large suppliers. Though there has been a tremendous focus on openness and competition in the export markets, the domestic marketplace has become closed and noncompetitive. Today the position of the family farmer has become even weaker as consolidation in agribusiness and food retail has reached all time highs.
Farmers have fewer buyers and suppliers than ever before.
The result is an increasing loss of family farms and the smallest farm share of the consumer dollar in history. All but the farm sector have experienced unprecedented consolidation in recent years, surrounding farmers with 800 pound gorillas that are able to squeeze farm income to zero. The result is that no matter the level of income, even with the doubling of federal support, farmers' income languishes. Congress must comprehensively address this problem by confronting the problems inherent in consolidation and vertical integration. One hundred years ago, this nation reacted appropriately to citizen concerns about large, powerful companies by establishing rules constraining such businesses when they achieved a level of market power that harmed, or risked harming, the public interest, trade and commerce.