Family Farms and Ranches

For decades, U.S. farm policy and trade agreements were designed to use taxpayer dollars as a substitute for market-based farm income. This was necessary to offset artificially low prices paid by multinational corporations for feed grains and other farm products. These low commodity prices and high taxpayer costs have:

• Increased the country’s budget and trade deficits.

• Created cheap feed that encourages destructive industrial production of livestock.

• Exported unhealthy diets and low farm prices to other nations while destroying economic opportunity for farmers and rural communities here at home.

Public policy must shift to recognize and support the role of family farms and ranches in protecting and strengthening our food supply, the environment, public health, and rural communities.