We are writing to state emphatically that much can be done. The loss of family farms is not the result of inevitable forces. You are in a position to lead, but you must act boldly to challenge market and policy barriers and support new opportunities for family farms.
Most studies show that modest-size farms can produce as efficiently as large farms.
But they cannot compete if large corporate farms use their economic power to gain unfair advantages through volume-based discounts on inputs and premiums for their production. We urge you to use your authority to require mandatory price reporting by meat packers to expose price discrimination based on volume of production and then take action to prevent it. Ensure fair and competitive bidding for livestock produced by family farms and ranches. While virtually every federal agricultural program has been justified on the basis of helping family farms, many have actually contributed to their demise by subsidizing the growth of the nation's largest farms. For example, under the new federal farm revenue insurance, the bigger the farm the more USDA spends to subsidize its premiums.