Corporate Accountability

• Animal Welfare
• Environment
• Food Safety
• Transparency
• Worker Rights

Unchecked concentration in one industry spells bad news for other industries. Massive companies are swallowing up other massive companies in questionable mergers. Multi-national grain corporations are buying up giants in the meat industry, creating vast, vertically integrated supply chains. When the corporation owns every step in the production of the final product, they can exert tremendous power over the livelihoods of the farmers, workers, and communities whose hard work brings food to our tables.

When companies have this much power, they can cut corners and bend the rules in their favor, even at the expense of farmers, rural communities, workers, our environment, and eaters. In this David-and-Goliath dynamic, good people could lose everything if they speak out against unsafe practices, corruption, and injustice. For the safety and sustainability of our food system, we must break the culture of fear and retaliation in industrial agriculture. Learn more about retaliation towards farmer truth-tellers here.

That’s why FIC launched the #FairShake Week of Action to show Big Ag that we won’t stand for exploitative practices. Over 55 organizations joined us to share timely messages on social media about the impact of corporate consolidation on agriculture. In addition to the Week of Action, many organizations also signed and delivered a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture advocating for stronger protections for family famers.

Whistleblower Farmers Demand Action

Farmer whistleblowers repeatedly experience retaliation from big companies after risking it all to bring their truth to the public. The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 was intended to curb abusive and anti-competitive practices in the meat industry. But industry power has remained unchallenged and gotten worse.

That has not stopped farmer truth-tellers, like Rudy Howell from North Carolina, from calling out the deceptive & abusive practices of the meat industry. Rudy launched a petition along with FIC to demand that USDA finalize regulations that would strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act, increasing competition in the industry and ensuring fairness for farmers. To hear Rudy’s thoughts on how the poultry industry could be fixed, read his comments here.

Whistleblower and FIC client Rudy Howell takes to the skies to deliver a 95-foot-tall and 875-foot-wide message to the chicken industry.

Our Message is Clear:

• We must reset the balance of power: There’s a dramatic imbalance of power between producers and corporations. Farmers increasingly have nowhere to sell in the marketplace except to one or two companies. Unchecked consolidation and vertical integration have created this imbalance and allowed corporations to manipulate the marketplace, push down the prices paid to farmers and ranchers, and drive independent producers out of business.
• We must level the playing field: Let farmers grow! Existing farmers as well as new farmers entering agriculture deserve an opportunity to innovate. Industrial agriculture traps farmers in exploitative contracts and failed paradigms. Even when farmers want to do right by their neighbors, even when farmers want to improve their environmental conditions, industry control demands otherwise. Corporate concentration sets up a race to the bottom, prioritizing profit over people and the planet.
• We must reclaim basic rights and safe working conditions: Vertical integration and concentration disempowers workers and farmers alike, across multiple sectors at once. While profits become concentrated, farmers and workers take on the risks – such as ever-increasing debt, and dangerous and unsafe working conditions – with very limited enforceable rights. We must restore basic rights for dignity, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

Farmers deserve a #FairShake!

Where We Go From Here:

In July 2021, the antitrust Executive Order, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy” was signed. This was the Biden Administration’s first step in showing its commitment to increasing competition in the marketplace—specifically its implications for the agricultural sector. The #FairShake Week of Action clearly demonstrated support for these bold food system reforms, and we’re just getting warmed up!

Join our email list to get updates on the rulemaking at USDA and the next steps for #FairShake as we continue to fight to put an end to unmitigated consolidation in industrial agriculture.

Tell Congress you want to level the playing field between farmers and corporations!

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