Food Inflation? Farm American and Bust Up the Ag Cartels!

Food is central to a nation’s security. In a nation committed to promoting the general welfare of its people, its government, legislators, and administrators would promote policies that enable the farmer to farm and agricultural producers to produce the required agricultural commodities, and to market those products at prices that not only sustain the farmer, but allow investment to upgrade the inputs into their farm or agricultural concern. This is an American System policy of price supports–parity pricing–that protects manufacturing and agriculture from predatory free trade, monopolization and outsourcing. The last time the United States enacted agricultural price supports and commerce regulations was in 1938; it was repealed in full by 1996, after decades of chiseling away at the protectionist framework. Unleashed was an orgy of consolidation by multinational corporations, bankrupting smaller U.S. agricultural concerns.

The cost of food has not been stable for decades, and the recent spike in costs has gotten people’s attention. But Kamala Harris is wrong to declare that she will fix it by banning food price-gouging by the grocers. It’s scapegoating. The National Grocers Association, which has called out large food retailers and suppliers for “unfair and discriminatory tactics,” called Harris’s proposal “a solution in search of a problem,” reports Grocery Dive. They point to already existing legislation–the Robinson-Patman Act of 1938 that prohibits price discrimination favoring preferred retailers, and prevents large retailers from coercing preferential treatment from suppliers. The Department of Justice ceased enforcing that act in 1977. The NGA also suggests reining “in excessive and burdensome regulation” that places costly constraints on agriculture and manufacturing.

Kamala Harris proposes grocery price-gouging ban as part of economic platform

Grocery trade groups had mixed reactions, with the National Grocers Association calling for stronger enforcement of current federal antitrust requirements.

Yahoo FinanceCatherine Douglas Moran

The source of food price inflation can be found in the unbridled consolidation of the agricultural sector. Take beef: four companies slaughter 85 percent of U.S. grain-fattened cattle and they determine the price at which this cattle is purchased. This includes the Minnesota based global commodity trader, Cargill, and the Brazilian multinational JBS SA. On top of this monopolization, these companies can raise their livestock outside the U.S., but as long as they finish and butcher that livestock in the U.S. it can be marketed as “Made in America,” undercutting the American farmer. Similar consolidation exists in the pork and poultry sectors, with Smithfield Foods, a subsidiary of the Chinese firm WH Group, Tyson Foods and JBS leading pork producers, and Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Sysco leading poultry producers. Each one of these companies is vertically integrated into everything from grain for feed to transport and slaughterhouses. And each one buys and sells subsidiary companies with each other. In this process, high paying union jobs, in slaughterhouses for example, have been eliminated, with the often dangerous work now accomplished by low wage and unprotected immigrant labor.

The only approach which the U.S. should take to reverse the crushing effects of inflation is an America First approach. The 2024 GOP Platform notes early on that "history shows that inflation will not magically disappear while policies remain the same.” America’s farmers should not have to compete against multinational cartels who can easily game the system to their benefit. And America’s farmers should have the commitment of their government to support in good times and bad for a sector that feeds the nation’s people. That same GOP Platform commits the Republican Party to “protect American Workers, Farmers, and industries from unfair Foreign Competition,” prioritizing “Domestic Production,” and ensuring “National Independence in essential goods and services.”

To that end, Republicans will support tariffs on foreign-made goods and call out unfair trading practices. They will keep American land and real estate in American hands. They will bring critical supply chains back to the U.S. They will “strengthen Buy American and Hire American Policies” And they will “slash Regulations that stifle jobs, Freedom, Innovation.”

A Promethean Guide to the 2024 Republican Party Platform

The 2024 Republican Party Platform, led by Donald Trump, declares war on the old GOP, Wall St. and the D.C. establishment, embracing a new American System that places industry, workers, and infrastructure over globalism and oligarchy.

Promethean ActionPromethean Action

One good place to start is aiming antitrust laws at the multinational agriculture cartels, while bringing back protectionist policies that support the price paid to farmers for the goods produced. Parity pricing was the law of the land in some form for many years after 1938 until 1996. To its fullest extent, it stabilized the agriculture markets and kept farmers out of bankruptcy.

Buy American and Farm American!