Stand With Farm Families Campaign

In July 2019, family farmers and ranchers from the country’s top agricultural states took to Capitol Hill to expose decades of abuse by the nation’s largest meat companies. They were joined by advocates from Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA), the Organization for Competitive Markets, and the Food Integrity Campaign of the Government Accountability Project. With support from Resource Media, the group held a press conference at the National Press Club, sharing accounts of predatory contracts, rigged markets and mafia-like retaliation tactics. They paired their media outreach with a digital storytelling campaign and a petition that received over 80,000 signatures. Armed with this narrative and a growing base of public support, farmers urged Congress to pressure the USDA to revise its Farmer Fair Practices Rule to better protect farmers from corporate exploitation. To date, these efforts have resulted in key legislators and Presidential candidates issuing a Dear Colleague letter to the USDA.