Tell Your Senators the Farm Bill Must Have a Comprehensive Competition Title!

November 22, 2009 Subject: Dear Senator, I urge you to support the inclusion of a Competition Title in the Farm Bill because farmers and ranchers need a healthy marketplace to make a decent living. Today, a small handful of corporations overwhelmingly dominate our food supply. The concentration of market control in the top four firms in U.S. food retailing, grain processing, red meat processing, poultry processing, milk processing, and nearly every category of food manufacturing is at an all time high. Corporate mergers and buyouts have concentrated the power of these firms and increased their ability to unfairly manipulate market conditions in their favor. This unprecedented level of horizontal market consolidation effectively eliminates free market competition to the detriment of independent family farmers and consumers. A critical role of government is to ensure fairness by facilitating properly operating markets and balance in the economic relationships among farmers/ranchers, consumers and food companies. Currently, inadequate federal legislation and the lack of enforcement of anti-trust policies allow a handful of corporations to continue to consolidate market power, manipulate prices, and create anti-competitive market structures. Federal government inaction has a dramatic, negative impact on not only farmers and ranchers, but also on rural communities, the environment, food quality, food safety, and consumer prices. It undermines sustainable production practices and state and local laws that support family-scale, sustainable farm and ranch operations. To address these problems, I urge you to champion a strong, comprehensive Competition Title in the 2007 Farm Bill and to co-sponsor and support the following measures of this comprehensive package as separate bills and to work for speedy congressional consideration of these proposals. - Captive Supply Reform Act (S. 1017) - Prohibition on Packer-Owned Livestock (S. 305) - Fairness Standards for Agricultural Contracts (S. 622) - Clarification of "Undue Preferences" in the Packers & Stockyards Act (PSA) (S. 622) - Closing Poultry Loopholes in the Packers & Stockyards Act (PSA) (S. 622) - Bargaining Rights for Contract Farmers (S. 622) - Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting - Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (S. 404) Thank you. We will add your signature from the information you provide.		First Name* Last Name* Email* Street* Street 2 City* State/Province* Select a state Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Armed Forces (the) Americas Armed Forces Europe Armed Forces Pacific Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Newfoundland New Brunswick Nova Scotia Northwest Territories Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Territory Other Zip/Postal Code* Send an Email Add me to the following list(s): Send me more information from RAFI-USA