After a week in which Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who’s running for president, was in the spotlight for her call to check the power of big agribusiness and “level the playing field for America’s family farmers,” Big Ag began to hit back, insisting her ideas are out of touch with reality.
Warren rolled out her agriculture platform late last month, just ahead of a forum for Democratic candidates in Storm Lake, Iowa. She invoked the language of trust-busting, decrying the growing consolidation in the ag sector and vowing to break up some of the biggest companies that dominate everything from seeds and equipment to pesticides and processing.
“We disagree with the premise and the policies outlined,” said Jim Monroe, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, a trade group. “The U.S. pork production system is the envy of the world. It is also highly export dependent. What U.S. pork producers and the other American farm families need are expanded export opportunities, not more regulations.”
Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told CNBC: “If Senator Warren’s goal is to help cattle farmers and ranchers, her policy proposals seriously miss the mark. The ideas she outlines are nothing more than recycled policies promoted by some of the leading opponents of animal agriculture.”
Rural issues will be a focus for Democratic 2020 presidential candidates who hope to win over some of the communities who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. Trump won 60 percent of small-town and rural votes to Hillary Clinton’s 26 percent, exceeding the typical Republican margin in those places. But support for the president is far from universal in rural communities, and the trade war has strained farmers’ enthusiasm for Trump. Democrats hope to capitalize on this fatigue, and rally the 40 percent of rural voters who disapprove of Trump’s performance, in the 2020 election.