Commentary: As Farm Bill Stalls, New Legislation Emerges Tackling Unfair Markets in Agriculture

By Ben Lilliston

Earlier this month, the Senate Agriculture Committee failed to approve a new Farm Bill. The new bill is now three years overdue and effectively paralyzed, even as farmers face rising costs, growing debt, climate disruptions and market losses. Cutting through the Farm Bill quagmire are a series of exciting new bills that directly address excess corporate power in the food and farm economy. The slate of new bills tackles unfair markets in ways that are missing from the official Farm Bill process, including lack of competition in the beef market, unfair pricing in dairy, patent abuse by seed companies, speculative farmland investors, and exploitative treatment of food workers.

Both the House Farm Bill, passed in April, and the proposed Senate bill are essentially backing the status quo and neither address issues caused by excess corporate power in the sector. While the Trump administration has touted investigations into the fertilizer sector (by the Federal Trade Commission) and beef sector (by the Department of Justice), the administration has handed out favor after favor to big agribusiness firms, further entrenching their position within the farm economy.

Earlier this month, USDA delayed implementation of Biden administration rules that protect farmers from discriminatory, deceptive, and retaliatory corporate actions in the market — prompting a rare joint rebuke by the country’s two largest farm groups. Over the last year, the Trump administration approved faster line speeds for meat processing companies, gave tariff exemptions for beef import (and beef importing companies) coming from Brazil and Argentina, successfully advocated for global chemical giant Bayer before the Supreme Court, sped up permitting for fertilizer giant CF Industries, granted a request from controversial global meat giant JBS to be publicly traded, and last week re-opened the Mexican border for cattle (a priority for big beef processors) despite ongoing concerns about the northern spread of the flesh-eating screwworm.