Elizabeth Warren's plan to make farming great again, explained

[WeekiWater]

A crackdown on agribusiness conglomerates, and more.

Continuing her streak as the 2020 presidential cycle’s most policy-rich candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) rolled out a package of proposals on Wednesday designed to boost the fortunes of America’s small farmers, instead of the agribusiness giants who increasingly control the sector.

With Iowa playing a perennially influential role in the US presidential nominating process, Midwestern farmers always get some love from candidates. But Donald Trump’s unusually strong electoral performance in the rural north and the collapse of the once-large bloc of Democratic Party senators from the Great Plains states has transformed the political geography of the United States to the GOP’s advantage.

This transformation has been driven by identity issues: Democrats are increasingly branded not just as the party of racial minorities, but more broadly as the party of people who enjoy the cosmopolitan lifestyles available in big metro areas and college towns, with the GOP representing the home-and-hearth values of smaller communities.

Warren’s pitch aims to inject a rural-specific economic clash into the political discourse that would fit neatly with her larger theme of attacking concentrated economic power and pit at least some farmers’ bottom-line economic interests against those of big corporate players in the farm sector.

How it works: VOX

[vlyons]

1. I want to see Monsanto's control of the seed bank broken

Monsanto puts a copyright on their seeds. A farmer buys Monsanto seeds, plants and harvests a crop. But he is not allowed to collect any seeds from that crop to be planted the next year. He has to go back and buy new Monsanto seeds every year.

[WeekiWater]

2. There is a bit of a myth that farmers want to save seed for the next year.

Most don't.

It is true that with many GM or GMO seeds that the companies make the farmers sign a contract stating that they won't save seeds. I think that is fair if you are going that route as a farmer. Farmers are not limited in their options. There are plenty of places to get seed, including seed where one can collect and use for the next year.

There are also cost benefits to many farmers who don't use saved seed. It's not as simple as throwing seeds in a sack for next year and those seeds often have a much lower start and growth rate.