Bernie Sanders: I'll fight for farmers against powerful agribusiness

[Uncle Joe]

This past month, hardworking farmers in Iowa saw historic floods kill livestock and topple grain silos in an instant, losing their livelihoods and their way of life. It was just the latest blow to rural communities that have seen farmers’ incomes cut in half, hospitals shut down, school districts consolidated, drinking wells tainted and downtowns decimated by layoffs.

But, despite what the pundits might say, this was not inevitable — and it’s completely unacceptable.

Whether it’s in Iowa, my home state of Vermont or anywhere else, the crisis in America’s small towns and rural communities is the result of deliberate policy choices by a political class that neglects rural America, rather than investing in it.

In the end, the desperation felt by families in rural communities is about basic economic rights and freedom. Farmers have been systematically stripped of their ability to control their own futures and no longer know whether their hard work will earn them future success and stability. Storefronts are empty and farmers have been forced to sell their land that has been kept in families for generations to massive corporations.

(snip)

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/caucus/2019/03/28/bernie-sanders-president-2020-caucus-agribusiness-factory-farming-rural-america-iowa-flood-trump-ceo/3297096002/

[BlueFlorida]

1. Copying Elizabeth Warren's detailed policy and plan

announced several days ago with a slogan? Where are the details of Bernie's plan?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128740394

[KitSileya]

2. Still no rebuttal from the Senator Sanders' supporters on this, huh?

I guess they'd rather this shameful attempt to steal credit, which women in all parts of working life know all too well, falls off the first page - the theft was too obvious after Senator Warren's roll out of her policy. No woman's policy/suggestion/remark is worthy of notice until it's been said by a man, after all.

[ehrnst]

3. That's interesting. (nt)

[Amimnoch]

4. He'll get to it when he finishes the edited version of his taxes for release.

I'm sure it's in the works.

[NurseJackie]

5. That appears to be happening quite often, doesn't it?

I wonder why.

[Blue_true]

23. I am wondering when some people will start attacking Mayor Pete.

As he creeps up on a certain person in polls, my guess is it won't be long.

[NurseJackie]

29. No need. He's already peaked.

Unless he runs to be a representative or senator, this is the best he can hope for.

[SidDithers]

30. Bernie doesn't do details. Or plans...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) does slogans.

Sid

[BlueFlorida]

32. Slogans Я us !! nt

[Go Vols]

6. Bernie has been pro small farmer for years

1986
Bernie Sanders for Governor Press Conference re: Vermont Agriculture and Family Farms

1998
Bernie Sanders: Monsanto and Family Farms

2006
Bernie Sanders political ad featuring Willie Nelson

[Uncle Joe]

7. Thanks for the additon Go Vols.

[BlueFlorida]

8. He is especially pro-farmer when he is running in Iowa.

[Go Vols]

9. Preaching small farms are better than factory farms for 30+ years

Makes sense he would be especially pro farmer in a farming state.

:/

[Power 2 the People]

28. +1

[murielm99]

18. We own a family farm in Grundy County Iowa.

The guy who farms it for us was my husband's college roommate. He is getting older, but he still wants to farm.

We just received a letter from him. He received some insurance money because of the flooding. The mud is so deep there that the crop will not go in for about another three weeks.

I asked my husband what BS had done for the farmers in Iowa. He laughed. Our partner/employee will get back to us about how Bernie saved us. The dear man is so diplomatic.

And I read the article in the link. BS says, several times, "When we are in the White House..." Who is this "We?"

If anyone saved us, it was the renewable energy industry. We have an access road and a wind turbine on our property. They pay us for that.

[BlueFlorida]

19. Some people don't realize

that Bernie is just another politician ... no better nor worse.

[Uncle Joe]

21. I don't believe Bernie has been President before.

He has been one of 435 members of Congress and one of 100 Senators.

Bernie spells out clearly in the Des Moines Register what he perceives to be the fundamental problems facing rural communities, small and mid size family farms and the policy solutions he would champion as President if elected.

"We" being the people of the United States, particularly those most damaged by decades of runaway capitalism and oligarchy aka; the vast majority of the American People, indeed the nation as whole, should Bernie's broad based policies become law, our dog eat dog society would be greatly diminished for it.

Bernie is also a champion of renewable energy.

[Blue_true]

25. News alert. Bernie does not have to be President to work on solving the problems.

Other politicians have not waited to become President to work on such problems.

My take?

Not every place should be "saved". The country's history is replete with towns that have vanished, to never be seen again. One of the realities of business is that high volume producers wipe out small players, unless the small players come up with unique ideas. Farming, the food industry in general, is an area where "novel" ideas are few. A person in Florida buying an ear of corn thinks first about how much it costs (unless other conditions like 100% organic are more important). BigAg can produce the ear of corn for maybe $.02, a small farmer will produce it for more money. The Florida shopper buys the BigAg corn unless there is something about the small farmer's corn that is appealing, and then only if the Florida shopper's budget allows for purchase of the more expensive corn.

Bernie is like any other politician. He is making promises to save something that is likely beyond saving. The likely outcome is money being spent that is better spent somewhere else. But there is nothing special or bad about him doing that, every politician does it to an extent.

The lady that mentioned a wind turbine on her farm is an example of how people need to adapt. By allowing the turbine on her property, she and her family get revenue that comes without them having to put up funds. Letting farmland go wild and letting natural berries, nuts and fruit once again grow there is another change that can bring in more minimal-effort revenue, believe it or not "wild source" products, including cold pressed oils from wild seeds, are a big thing among some consumers, they pay premium prices for the stuff.

[Uncle Joe]

22. P.S. I don't know whether this issue is a major problem where you live

but this another policy which Bernie champions that I believe would greatly help rural communities, not to mention the Industrial Heartland; or what's left of it.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, announced on Tuesday the settlement of a case brought by Oklahoma for $270 million.

The settlement prompted legal scholars to speculate that other defendants in some of the 35 state cases brought against the company might settle, The New York Times reported. Some 1,600 suits have been filed against Purdue Pharma, whose drug OxyContin is at the center of the opioid crisis that is killing an average 130 Americans a day.

The lawsuits against Purdue have brought increased scrutiny to its operations and the family behind it, the Sacklers, who have amassed a fortune of $13 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company is accused of pushing doctors to prescribe OxyContin while simultaneously promoting an effort that misled the public about the medication's addictive qualities.

The Sacklers have become a widely recognized name and drawn criticism from public figures like comedian Samantha Bee, who hosts Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, and Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator tweeted a video from Bee on Wednesday, writing, "The Sackler family has made billions of dollars selling opioids. Their greed, which is killing Americans, must end."

(snip)

https://www.newsweek.com/sacklers-opioid-crisis-13-billion-1376871


https://www.democraticunderground.com/128740580

Peace to you muriel.

[Blue_true]

24. But, but.....

Anytime Bernie speaks on sonething, it is brand new and vitally important, even if other politicians have been talking about those very same issues for years, and doing more than talk, like crafting policy at their current level to address the issues (as has been done for decades now).

Is it possible to get that power company to put more wind turbines on your land, or would incremental issues be too much for you to tolerate? You can offer them a deal, rent on each new turbine comes at 65% the rent on the original one. Sort of like having free money fall from the sky.

[George II]

12. He may have been pro-farmer going back that far, but it hasn't helped Vermont farmers much:

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/milking-it/Content?oid=26454611

[Hortensis]

13. Speaking of helping dairy, within 2 days of the kind

of grid attack our intelligence services are very worried about, most of Vermont's 126,000 milk cows would be in distress and on their way to agonizing deaths within the week. And with their deaths would go disappearance of our milk supply for years. NO way manpower could replace machines without electricity. Most people without babies or who didn't live within earshot of hundreds of dying cows would never know, of course, and no milk would be almost the least of their problems.

Hillary Clinton was well aware of our huge, existential vulnerability to taking down all or parts of our electrical grid and planned to have over half a million solar cells on America's roofs before her first term was over as part of restructuring our system for military sustainability, as well as, of course, to battle global warming and secure the affordable and sustainable energy we must have.

You guys who laud Sanders here, ask HIM what HIS plan for saving America's 9 million cows is.

Surely HE Sanders has one, even though he is on no ag committees and has sponsored no ag bills. Ever.

[Blue_true]

26. And it won't.

The best thing those farmers can do is form a collective, to try to "grow" big enough to compete with the big players. Or they figure out how to offer unique products to a subset of consumers. Failing those changes, they are as good as done.

[Hortensis]

15. Senator Sanders has never been on an ag committee or

sponsored ag legislation. That's public record.

Democrats are OF COURSE all pro farmers and pro a large, healthy, varied, affordable, and sustainable national food supply. That's who we are.

[Skidmore]

16. And he spent his time

in 2016, like Trump, railing against the TPP.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/23/tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-bernie-sanders-john-mccain
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bernie-sanders-trade-tpp-2016-2

Farmers have lost markets which may never be replaced after Trump withdrew from the agreement.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bernie-sanders-trade-tpp-2016-2
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/donald-trump-bernie-sanders-trade-221506
https://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/statements/2016/jul/27/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-he-and-bernie-sanders-are-very-s/

He supported Trump on the use of tariffs.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-bernie-sanders-20161117-story.html

Sanders has demonstrated monumentally poor judgment. Now that the barn door is open, his position now ring hollow and he sounds like a johnny come lately. When actualized, this rhetoric has been harmful to farmers.

[BlueFlorida]

20. Great points .. thank you for the post. nt

[Blue_true]

27. It is a case of demanding something without understanding all of the consequences.

The fact is that with ANY change, there are going to be winners and losers in the economy. For a growing nation that requires reasonably priced food, the losers are going to be small farmers, unless they offer unique products. I buy the butter and other items that I use in my home from a health food store that also do groceries on the side. A pound of butter cost around 2.5x what I would pay in a grocery store, a 12 pack of eggs cost even more, 3+x what I would pay in a grocery store, bread about 2x. I buy the products because I get a sense of how they were made and they simply tast better than the more commercial stuff. Farmers that supply nitch markets can survive, but because those markets are small, not all farmers can survive. That is just how things work and how they have worked since the country's founding.

[Hortensis]

31. "monumentally poor judgment" is almost a definition of

someone who could spend nearly 30 years in the seat of power as a +1 vote for people he imagined were corrupt and incompetent and see himself as a potential great leader held back by unworthy people.

His record shows he would almost certainly have voted his usual +1 along with his Democratic colleagues for the TPP -- if it hadn't coincided with Sen. Warren's leaving a vacuum in the 2016 field and if it hadn't been a big scare issue for the people whose votes he chose to go after. He chose not to lead them to understanding but to harness their fear.

So, while our soybeans sit unsold in silos and grain bins, or rot, the Amazon basin is being cleared to grow soybeans for the far east. What a mess.

?resize=400%2C250

[WeekiWater]

10. Democrats have been working to help them. Lets keep it up.

Democrats’ push for a new era of antitrust enforcement, explained

VOX

Booker calls on antitrust regulators to start paying attention to workers

VOX

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to make farming great again, explained

VOX

This push can have a great impact if we get the numbers.

[Uncle Joe]

11. I agree WeekiWater

[Hortensis]

14. Warren is advocating a national Right to Repair, the lack of

which due to increasingly predatory farm machinery manufacturers has become a huge problem for American farmers especially but for equipment purchasers in many other fields as well.

You guys who follows Sanders will presumably have heard him speak on this serious problem for America's farmers. For those who haven't, here:

Elizabeth Warren comes out in support of a national right-to-repair law for farm equipment:
The proposal focuses on farm equipment, but broader rules could have significant implications for Apple

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/27/18284011/elizabeth-warren-apple-right-to-repair-john-deere-law-presidential-campaign-iowa

Of course, she would expand it to other industries. She is implacably opposed to predatory corporations and intends to break up our too-big-to-oppose monopolies.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I believe that would be a good policy.