We all look for someone, or something to blame, but we also need to look for ways to help ourselves. When a segment of the economy is deregulated, it releases power. Those with power move to exert that power to their advantage. But you and I also know on our farms, that if we want a problem fixed and done right, we do it ourselves.
Government has some responsibility, but producers have responsibility as well.
We cannot continue to market as we have in the past when buyers have consolidated their buying power. Most segments of the economy have used collective bargaining to their advantage. Farmers and ranchers need to consolidate their selling power using nationwide collective bargaining and to exercise the right to price what they sell. It is their right to do so guaranteed by the Capper-Volstead Act. The farmers' share of the food dollar has shrunk from 37 cents in 1980 to 23 cents in 1998.