Livestock contracting by packers violates the Packers and Stockyards Act. I don't oppose change. Diversified, innovative family farmers should be players at the table as our food system evolves. A Communicating for Agriculture survey shows that consumers look to family farmers to provide lower food prices, better safety and protect natural resources. They're increasingly concerned about food industry concentration.
Farmers can fill local niche markets for fresh and organic foods.
But we also need to cultivate alliances with consumer and environmental groups on common issues, such as Land Grant funding to keep genetic seed patents in the public domain. Farmers must lobby for campaign finance reform. Mandatory price reporting was killed initially by members of Congress at the behest of the American Meat Institute. Many of our ancestors who gathered on that first Thanksgiving Day left the Old World to escape the underclass. If farmers relinquish a place at the table, we'll be right back where they started.