At a public forum in Aberdeen last month, Lars Herseth and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin both complained that the Democratic Party is too urban and doesn’t offer much to rural farmers like Lars.
Democrats could scratch the Herseth family itch by campaigning on the Farmers Bill of Rights proposed by Family Farm Action and fighting the monopoly power that is sapping the vibrancy of rural communities. Family Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell explains the extent and impact of Big Ag monopolies:
Maxwell defines the problem very specifically. Multinational corporations have monopolized the entire agricultural sector, from seeds to livestock, produce to dairy, and everything in between. Even a farmer’s financial institutions have consolidated.
…When farmers are paid less and consumers pay more, middlemen producers enjoy massive profits. But industrial agriculture also destroys soils and pollutes streams. Giant feedlots are environmental nightmares that drive down local property values and destroy the tax base. Routine animal cruelty flowers from concentrated ownership. When wealth leaks out to corporations instead of staying locally, communities suffer and despair leads to drug and alcohol abuse. And consumers lack the diversity of different foods [David Dayen, “Democrats Can Win Rural Voters by Taking on Big Agriculture,” The Nation, 2017.08.16].
Family Farm Action wants enforcement of stronger antitrust rules and implementation of the Obama-era GIPSA rules that Big Ag showgirl Kristi Noem and her fellow Republicans blocked and that Donald Trump delayed in April. By backing anti-monopoly policies like these, Democrats can win rural America by acting like Democrats:
Identifying the corporate power that holds back farm communities could revive Democratic fortunes. Obviously, there are huge cultural barriers dividing Democrats from these areas, dominated by a media that paints them in the worst possible light. But the answer to that isn’t to walk away from the region, or present Republican-lite “moderates” who line up with corporate interests; it lies in showing farmers you stand with them, not the monopolists [Dayen, 2017.08.16].
By the way, Dayen suggests that we Democrats don’t have to spend much time hollering about Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, since it is mostly a sop to Big Ag that wouldn’t make much of a difference in ag output.
So get the Herseths excited again, Democrats! Talk to farmers and farm towns about how corporate monopolists are the real enemy and how Democratic trust-busters are their best allies.
The monopoly article could not speak louder. When you think of the beef industry and how cattle prices were just gonna go so far up that ranchers were going to be the happiest clams on the planet and then what? The Brazilian owners of the packing plants have been dumping their own livestock into the market to dilute pricing even further here. That beef tonnage gets lost in the fact that we want to discuss how the Blacks and Mexicans are screwing up their economy by just being here. When racism is more important than checkbook issues you know the monopolies are laughing their arse’s off all the way to the bank, that is as crooked as when it was at the time of the last bailout in 2008. Yep, trump was gonna fix that and then loaded the Nazi cabinet with those that contributed to that very fail of the banking system in 2008. The pharma overpricing, you betcha, trump was gonna get right after that one as well. He proved his chops by putting Tom Price in charge, the same crook and liar that made millions off insider trade deals in his position.
So what is a rancher to do? Should he keep up the charade of blaming the poor and the immigrants or should he just put on some of those rose colored glasses and look at what is going on around him. Maybe to ask himself a fundamental question, how was dad fixed when he turned the place over. What would he think of the overpowering debt that you find yourself under for all the work that you do. Where is your kid in all of this and how is he gonna be able to carry on? How much of the farm land around you is corporate owned by investment firms? Then ask, what party was doing the looking out for him when the agriculture world was on track. Democrats can put you back in the pride of your work and your product. Start right here in South Dakota and see just what a bunch of bullcrap you have been dealing with. Republican legislators that could give a damn about your plight because of the side jobs they now were elected into. They don’t care about you farmers and ranchers, they don’t care. The very organizations that you would think would do something, do nothing but say they are disappointed in John Thune’s direction of non support. What the hell does disappointment mean to them? Not a thing, they show over and over again. Put good Democrats back into positions of doing things and things will be done on the positive side of what matters most to you.
What about the SNAP program? That program helps the least among us and it also helps out farmers. Why do wingnuts get a free pass for hurting the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the military and of course family farmers?
People need to eat. They don’t need to buy favors from pols. Then again, people shouldn’t be forced to beg for food. That is a large part of the government’s mission-promoting the general welfare.
Babies are also missing from the equation of how ag monopolies are destroying rural life. Abortion haters like Mr. Nelson and Mr. Hickey are quick on the draw to condemn abortion but they sit on their arse when it comes to the care of our rural and urban babies. What about them? No federal or state program helps these new citizens of the world out, we just listen to the hate filled republican cult talk of the evils of abortion while they conveniently ignore the poor children’s plight. Good article on this and how Democrats can also work to deliver a message to rural republican voters about how it would feel to wear a wet diaper all day. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/diaper-banks-child-poverty_us_5983538ae4b00f0084ae8687?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009 Democrats could very easily bring this up to show how big ag has not only taken away food from the belly of the ag producer, they have added insult and injury to their children and grand children as well.
Republicans, vote against the big ag republican. Voting for big ag republicans is like a newborn wearing a crappy diaper all day long. Long past time for a change.