Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP), on behalf of 17 organizations throughout the nation, filed an Amicus Brief with the U.S. Supreme Court highlighting the connection between rising consolidation and anticompetitive conduct rampant within the meals system.
The Amicus Brief demonstrates how California’s Proposition 12 advantages unbiased and sustainable U.S. farmers. Prop 12 was overwhelmingly handed by greater than 60 % of California voters in 2018 and set requirements concerning how meals is produced, primarily leveling the enjoying area for unbiased household farmers.
SRAP’s Amicus Brief challenges the place of the National Pork Producers and American Farm Bureau Federation, who oppose Prop 12 as a result of it can disrupt the market management of the multinational meatpackers they characterize. SRAP’s place focuses on the wants of farmers exterior the hyper-concentrated provide chain and raises sturdy antitrust considerations.
Sherri Dugger, government director of SRAP mentioned:
“The Big Ag lobby spends millions shaping every branch of government in favor of the corporate giants they represent. This case is simply about them trying to establish precedent at the highest court to prevent voters from setting basic standards about how food is produced.”
Greg Gunthorp of Gunthorp Farms, based mostly in LaGrange, Indiana, and board member of the Indiana Farmers Union, mentioned:
“The petitioners, many of which are multinational corporations who are foreign-owned, are enjoying record profits while many small farmers struggle to make ends meet. In fact, just over the past 19 years, between 1993 and 2012, the U.S. lost about 70 percent of its hog operations. Farmers and rural communities continue to deal with the economic and environmental devastation these corporations and their web of factory farms creates.”
SRAP and its companions consider the dearth of wholesome competitors within the pork trade has led to decrease costs paid to livestock producers, larger costs charged to clients, and has eradicated buyer alternative.
Prop 12 acknowledges that the marketplace for sustainably raised pork is rising, prioritizes crate-free operations, and fosters wholesome competitors and financial alternatives for small, unbiased farmers.
Independent household farmers throughout the nation help the rights of voters to set requirements on how their meals is produced.
This submitting with the court docket factors out that many farmers have been already compliant with Prop 12 earlier than it handed, and others have invested to turn out to be compliant. SRAP and its companions consider legal guidelines like Prop 12, that disrupt the stranglehold agribusiness has on the trade, will create alternatives for America’s unbiased household farmers.
Carrie Balkcom, government director of American Grassfed Association, mentioned:
“If the Justices of the Supreme Court side with National Pork Producers, they will be putting their thumb on the scales of the market in favor of corporate meatpacking giants over independent family farmers. That’s not how our economy is supposed to work.”
About SRAP
For greater than 20 years, SRAP has served as a mobilizing pressure to assist communities shield themselves from the damages brought on by industrial livestock operations and to advocate for a meals system constructed on regenerative practices, justice, democracy, and resilience.
Our workforce contains technical specialists, unbiased household farmers, and rural residents who’ve confronted the threats of manufacturing facility farms of their communities. When requested for assist, SRAP gives free help, offering communities with the data and expertise to guard their proper to scrub water, air, and soil and to a wholesome, simply, and vibrant future. Learn extra at sraproject.org.
View the total transient right here.
Organizations signing onto the transient are:
Farm Aid Indiana Farmers Union
Northwest Farmers Union American Grassfed Association
Family Farm Defenders Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Organic Farmers Association National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Gunthorp Farms North Country Smokehouse
Walnut Hill White Oak Pastures
Iowa Farmers Union Farm Action
Callicrate Pork Ranch Foods Direct
Pennsylvania Farmers Union
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