What's at stake is the prosperity of rural communities, the future of our environment, and far-reaching questions of food safety and affordability. Government and corporate spin doctors try to tell us that factory farms are more efficient. But in reality they get sweetheart deals, low interest government loans, and tax breaks that aren't available to family farmers. All the while they're polluting our air, poisoning our water, destroying our land, and raising animals inhumanely. You, the taxpayer.
Family farmers are mad.
Consumers should be too. Farm debt levels are reaching record highs with farm auctions and bankruptcies on the rise. There are legislative solutions, but Congress has failed so far to approve even modest steps to improve family farmers' ability to earn a living, such as lifting a cap on commodity loan rates and restoring funds for USDA's Fund for Rural America. And there are more reasons why family farmers and ranchers are angry. Consumers should be too.