Iowa Conference Focuses on Ag Concentration, Consolidation

August 27, 1999

Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) will host a conference Sept. 7 in Cedar Rapids, IA, on economic concentration and consolidation in agriculture. USDA and Justice Department officials will attend.

The conference will focus on the pact of economic concentration and consolidation in agriculture; the impact on farmers, rural communities and consumers, and needed actions and responses. USDA Under Secretary Mike Dunn and Justice Attorney General for Antitrust Joel Klein will attend.

"Farmers face the hard realities of economic concentration wherever they turn -- when they buy and when they sell," says Harkin. The have "good reason to be concerned about the continued growth of the food and agricultural conglomerates."

Grassley said as food companies grow and consolidate, "they wrest control over the farmer's raw commodity and take an increasingly bigger share of the consumer's food dollar. If these trends continue, many farm families worry that the food system in the future will not give them a chance to make a decent living off the land."