Sens. Cory Booker and Jon Tester teamed up for a light-hearted video tackling a major issue in the agricultural industry. Released on Wednesday, the video alludes to the Democrats’ Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2022. Introduced last month by both Booker and Tester, along with Sens. Jeff Merkley and Elizabeth Warren, the legislation puts a moratorium on the types of mergers and acquisitions that have led to just four beef packers accounting for 85% of the U.S. market. While the moratorium is temporarily in place, a commission would study the effects of mergers and release recommendations to better enforce antitrust laws.
“Whether it’s meatpacking or infant formula, a lack of competition in the marketplace leads to tighter margins for American producers, higher costs for consumers, and makes our country less safe when these multi-national corporations fail to perform,” Tester said in a press release announcing the bill. “Capitalism works exceptionally well when there’s competition, and this bill will help put family farmers back in the drivers’ seat by making our markets more competitive across the board.” Outside of setting up small businesses and rural farms to fail, allowing large companies to control the majority of the agriculture market has led to alarming effects when it comes to climate change and wide-ranging labor abuses.
The issue likely prompted a recent visit by Booker to fields in New Jersey where he labored alongside farm workers for five hours and came away from the experience truly changed. “This is difficult, hard work. And it’s done primarily by immigrants and undocumented immigrants and yet we don’t acknowledge that,” Booker said. “We have them paying into systems that they can have no benefit from. No healthcare, no social security, none, nothing. And in fact they’re in many ways constantly discriminated against… when the reality is that they are feeding us.”
This isn’t a new issue for Booker to tackle, having called attention to it since introducing similar legislation in 2018. Tester, himself a third-generation Montana farmer, has spent his entire political career with a focus on agricultural reform at the forefront. Both agree: Something needs to be done. In addition to the Senate bill on the subject, there is also a companion House bill introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan.