Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker Support the Farm System Reform Act!

The current pandemic has shined a big light of the fragility of our food system, and the inequities that are built into it.  No where is it more obvious then in the meatpacking industry where the conditions are set up for disaster, and the number of people testing positive and dying from the pandemic keeps rising.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Thursday that she would be co-sponsoring Sen. Cory Booker’s bill to phase out large-scale factory farming by 2040. This is huge! The Farm System Reform Act would deny permits for new factory farms, prohibit current operations from expanding, and require all factory farms to close down by 2040. Warren’s support for the law comes after multiple reports of unsafe conditions in the meatpacking industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Rep. Ro Khanna is also co-sponsoring the effort and has introduced companion legislation to the House.

“For years, regulators looked the other way while giant multinational corporations crushed the competition in the agriculture sector and seized control over key markets,” Warren said in a statement. “The COVID-19 crisis will make it easier for Big Ag to get even bigger, gobble up smaller farms, and lead to fewer choices for consumers.”

“We need to attack this consolidation head-on and give workers, farmers, and consumers bargaining power in our farm and food system,” added Warren. “I’m glad to partner with Senator Booker and Representative Khanna to start reversing the hyper-concentration in our farm economy.”

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