Farm Action
@FarmActionUS • 14,133 subscribers
We're farmers fighting for accountability from the government and the largest food and ag corporations.
Shorts
Videos
“I’m paying $7 a gallon here for diesel fuel.” “My combine holds 140 gallons.” “That’s right at $1,000 to fill up my combine.” For farmer John Boyd Jr., those numbers illustrate a much bigger problem in American agriculture. Farmers are paying more for the fuel, fertilizer, chemicals, equipment, and other inputs they need to produce our food, while concentrated markets leave them with little power over the prices they pay or receive. When those costs keep climbing, the consequences eventually reach beyond the farm and ripple throughout the entire food system. Boyd has been farming for decades and believes, “This is one of the worst economic times in history for America’s farmers.” That should be a warning about the direction of American agriculture. If producing food becomes increasingly expensive while farmers have less control over their markets, we risk losing more independent farms and concentrating even more of our food system in the hands of the biggest players. Dr. John W. Boyd, Jr.
Farm Action301,699 次观看 • 1 个月前
![“In the year 2000, John Deere’s flagship combine was $165,000.” “Today, it’s $1.3 million.” “$12,000-a-year increase has now turned into… $125,000-a-year increase.” “If we’re looking five years out at combines that are $2.5 million, there’s not going to be very many people who can afford those… and still make a profit.” Willie Cade has spent years fighting John Deere over farmers’ right to fix their own equipment. Now, he’s warning that the corporate giant is pricing family farmers out of business faster than ever. “Back in 2019, it all of a sudden just took off.” “It’s not something that the industry could sustain.” “Getting the food from the field all the way to your table, there’s a whole lot of people [and] different organizations that need to make a profit in order to stay in business.” The scale of the crisis facing farmers is far worse than Washington will ever admit. And this story exposes the central problem driving the crisis: Corporate consolidation. Not only is John Deere’s combine priced higher than many family farmers can afford, but Cade and other advocates have spent years fighting just to secure farmers’ right to repair their own equipment after they buy it. Willie Cade Teddy Downey The Capitol Forum](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2108585354542399596/amplify_video_thumb/2108585305783640064/img/iNUqmZooKPRSMMWe.jpg)
“In the year 2000, John Deere’s flagship combine was $165,000.” “Today, it’s $1.3 million.” “$12,000-a-year increase has now turned into… $125,000-a-year increase.” “If we’re looking five years out at combines that are $2.5 million, there’s not going to be very many people who can afford those… and still make a profit.” Willie Cade has spent years fighting John Deere over farmers’ right to fix their own equipment. Now, he’s warning that the corporate giant is pricing family farmers out of business faster than ever. “Back in 2019, it all of a sudden just took off.” “It’s not something that the industry could sustain.” “Getting the food from the field all the way to your table, there’s a whole lot of people [and] different organizations that need to make a profit in order to stay in business.” The scale of the crisis facing farmers is far worse than Washington will ever admit. And this story exposes the central problem driving the crisis: Corporate consolidation. Not only is John Deere’s combine priced higher than many family farmers can afford, but Cade and other advocates have spent years fighting just to secure farmers’ right to repair their own equipment after they buy it. Willie Cade Teddy Downey The Capitol Forum
Farm Action66,879 次观看 • 27 天前
Farmer Will Harris just said the quiet part out loud. Centralized industrial agriculture has completely hollowed out rural America. “Raw material was shipped from the town.” “Which is like sucking the money out.” “And then it became impoverished.” “The jobs went away.” But Harris’s regenerative farm, White Oak Pastures, turned his town’s fortune around. “Bluffton is a really good example of this… because it’s always been a farm town.” “It’s never had a railroad.” “Never had a mill.” “Never had a plant.” “Never had a factory.” “And it was a prosperous little town.” “But all of that economy was driven by agricultural production.” “Today, we sell 30-something million dollars worth of stuff.” “And most of the money stays in my area.” White Oak Pastures KyleMatthewsCEO
Farm Action107,916 次观看 • 2 个月前
Skyrocketing diesel prices are hitting farmers hard, and the effects won’t stop at the farm gate. “We have to harvest, we have to run the machines, we have to use the diesel.” “The machine behind me uses 200 gallons a day. So we’ll harvest for about 30 days.” “So there’s 6,000 gallons.” And fuel is only one part of the equation. Farmers are already facing rising costs for fertilizer, chemicals, and other inputs. The system leaves farmers with little control over the prices they pay or the prices they receive. They can absorb those increases for only so long before higher costs ripple through the food supply chain and hit consumers at the grocery store. Meanwhile, some of the largest corporations controlling essential parts of that system are reporting billions in profits during the same crises driving costs higher. Farmers and consumers shouldn’t keep getting squeezed while powerful corporations turn every new crisis into another opportunity to expand their margins.
Farm Action72,905 次观看 • 1 个月前
“It’s costing us about $1,500 of cash per day to run 2 tractors.” Ohio farmer says skyrocketing input costs are hammering American farmers. “I spent many years buying potash for $90 a ton, and now it’s $670 to $700 a ton.” “Our big problem is the input costs.” “I haven’t seen anything this bad since the 1980s.”
Farm Action160,514 次观看 • 5 个月前
Tyson closed a beef manufacturing plant in Lexington, Nebraska, this year. “6% of the nation’s beef came out of that plant.” “And Tyson just closed it.” “Putting 3,500 Nebraskans out of jobs.” Bookmark this. Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn just sounded the alarm. Tyson’s plant closure in Lexington reveals the damage that corporate monopolization in our food industry can do to rural America. “There are four meatpackers that have formed a monopoly.” “They work with the other ones.” “They target plants that are going to close down to manipulate… what they pay, from the producers all the way to what we pay at the grocery store.” “And this beef deal adds to the already problematic crisis of a thinning herd.” “We got to break up the meatpackers to create an environment that has competition.” We have been warning that President Trump’s beef import policy is a bad deal for both American ranchers and consumers. Flooding our market with imported beef undercuts domestic ranchers, many of whom are already struggling to keep their operations alive. And it is not meaningfully reducing prices for consumers. The only ones who benefit from this policy are multinational corporations, like JBS, who pocket all of the profits. We published a seven-point plan backed by ranchers, not corporations, to meaningfully reduce beef prices, restore our domestic cattle herd, and save ranchers. Read it below and send it to your members of Congress:🧵 Dan Osborn Brian Tyler Cohen
Farm Action20,097 次观看 • 17 天前
Trump 2024: “We’re going to get toxic chemicals out of our food supply” Trump 2026: “Glyphosate is critical to national security” A new Executive Order doubles down on the same system that bankrupted farmers, monopolized the food supply under the control of a few multinational corporations, and contaminated America’s food system. We cannot eliminate glyphosate overnight. But we should be taking steps to reform this broken system, not doubling down on it. The fact that U.S. agriculture has become so reliant on glyphosate should scare us into immediate, dramatic reform of our food system. Trump’s declaration that “glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy” exposes deep structural problems in our food system: Our over-reliance on chemicals and herbicides to produce more and more commodity crops is bankrupting our farmers and rural America. This broken system is the reason we are in a crisis today where over 60 farmers go out of business a day, and the rest require constant federal bailouts just to survive. Trump also claimed in his EO that glyphosate-based herbicides allow “farmers and ranchers to maintain high yields and low production costs.” But the opposite is true. Farmers have lower production costs and higher profits when they reduce or eliminate their use of glyphosate and other herbicides. Keeping them reliant on herbicides only benefits the pesticide industry. Finally, Trump’s claim that glyphosate enables farmers to produce “healthy, affordable food” could not be farther from the truth. The science that alleged glyphosate is safe was retracted after the paper was exposed for relying on false information that came directly from Monsanto. This Executive Order is bad news for independent farmers and MAHA.
Farm Action210,456 次观看 • 8 个月前
“The benefit to the meatpackers today, when they do not have to disclose the origins of beef, is they can put beef in the meat counter from Brazil, Argentina… or from any one of the 20 countries we import beef from.” “And then they can sell that…right next to a domestic product and sell it as if it was a domestic product.” “Consumers are not choosing to buy the cheaper imported product.” “They do not know.” “In fact, that product is disguised as if it were a domestic product.” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard breaks down how the lack of Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL) gives imported beef an advantage while leaving Americans in the dark about what they’re buying. American ranchers should not have to compete against cheaper imported beef that consumers cannot clearly distinguish from beef raised here at home. Consumers deserve to know where their beef was born, raised, and slaughtered before they spend their money. Restoring MCOOL gives Americans that choice while allowing our ranchers to compete on a level playing field. R-CALF USA Lonesome Lands
Farm Action67,121 次观看 • 2 个月前
![“Farm bankruptcies are up 70% in the Midwest.” “315 family farm operations filed [for] Chapter 12 bankruptcy in 2025.” “Farmers are increasingly borrowing to cover operating costs, not to grow.” “94% of farmers said the Iran conflict is hitting their operations through high fertilizer and energy costs.” “78% named input costs as their top three challenges.” Farmers are struggling because of policy decisions and monopolies they can’t control. We’re losing family farmers every day at a pace that is simply not sustainable. It’s time we recognize and address the farm crisis we’re facing before America’s family farms become a thing of the past. Barn Talk](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2084715064578232409/amplify_video_thumb/2084714929643270144/img/iEmxZllAEpx9VQ2i.jpg)
“Farm bankruptcies are up 70% in the Midwest.” “315 family farm operations filed [for] Chapter 12 bankruptcy in 2025.” “Farmers are increasingly borrowing to cover operating costs, not to grow.” “94% of farmers said the Iran conflict is hitting their operations through high fertilizer and energy costs.” “78% named input costs as their top three challenges.” Farmers are struggling because of policy decisions and monopolies they can’t control. We’re losing family farmers every day at a pace that is simply not sustainable. It’s time we recognize and address the farm crisis we’re facing before America’s family farms become a thing of the past. Barn Talk
Farm Action59,945 次观看 • 3 个月前
Farmer Joel Salatin just sounded the alarm. Billionaires and massive corporations like BlackRock, Vanguard, Monsanto, and Bill Gates are buying up all of America’s farmland. Here’s why this fight will define our children’s future: Salatin: “Half of America’s farmers are 60 years old.” “In the next 15 years, half of all America’s agriculture equity—land, buildings, machinery—is gonna change hands.” “Who’s it gonna go to? Bill Gates, Monsanto, BlackRock, Vanguard?” “Or is it going to be going to a new generation of young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed entrepreneurial land acquirers?” “We have to allow these thousands of young farmers that I meet every year in America ready to access their neighbors with retail dollars … a seat at the table.” Joel Salatin
Farm Action177,527 次观看 • 11 个月前
“If you love America and you love American farmers and ranchers, then how can you be against the idea that we’re gonna label where our beef and our food comes from.” “There’s just no question on this one.” “It’s black and white.” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says she fully supports restoring Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL). Farm Action is encouraged to hear this, but now we need to turn those words into action. Thursday’s Farm Bill hearing showed promising movement toward restoring MCOOL, even though the overall bill did not advance out of committee. With bipartisan support building in Congress and Secretary Rollins fully backing MCOOL, we have a real opportunity to finally restore it. The momentum is there. Now Congress needs to get it done. Lonesome Lands Secretary Brooke Rollins
Farm Action55,388 次观看 • 2 个月前
This independent farmer has an urgent plea for Washington. Keep the Save Our Bacon Act out of the Farm Bill. Big Ag lobbyists are pushing the Senate to strike down California’s Prop 12 with this provision. But Prop 12 saved Bob Street’s hog farm. It banned cruel gestation crates for pork sold in California. And countless independent hog farms will be at risk of bankruptcy if the Senate passes the Save Our Bacon Act and strikes down Prop 12. Street: “Leave Prop 12 in place.” “The corporations probably would rather have fewer producers.” “But there’s a downside to that, as far as the rural communities are concerned.” Prop 12 is a lifeline for hog farmers and, in turn, rural communities across the country. For countless hog farmers, the fight to defeat the Save Our Bacon Act is a fight for their livelihoods.
Farm Action39,429 次观看 • 2 个月前
RFK Jr. warns there’s a major crisis looming: Not enough young people are entering farming. “A lot of farmers are going out of business.” “We’re having a hard time finding young people who will go into farming.” “That is a crisis that we need to keep into consideration.” Secretary Kennedy
Farm Action101,539 次观看 • 8 个月前
Four corporations have managed to gain control over 85% of America’s cattle processing. One rancher breaks down exactly who they are and the numbers behind their dominance: “They are Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef.” “There are approximately 86.2 million cows here in the U.S. That includes beef and dairy.” “Overall, about 29.8 million cows got processed last year, 81,600 a day.” “98.2% of those were processed at a USDA-inspected plant, and that’s where the Big Four come in.” “They processed 85% of cows processed in the U.S.” When four companies control this much of the market, they gain enormous leverage over the ranchers who have to sell to them. Breaking the Big Four’s grip on beef processing has to be part of rebuilding America’s cattle industry.
Farm Action29,081 次观看 • 2 个月前
Farmer Joel Salatin just railed against USDA regulations preventing ranchers from selling beef to their own neighbors. This exposes why Trump’s announcement on farmers processing their own meat is a sham. Farmers already can process meat themselves. But they can’t sell it. “If a neighbor… says, ‘I want to come over and get a rib eye steak from you,’ I can’t butcher that animal and carve out a rib eye steak and sell it.” “The only way that anyone in this county can get a rib eye steak from the cow that was born here and raised here is for me to put that animal on a trailer, send him up the interstate to a federal inspected processing facility an hour away… then a couple weeks later, go back up, bring it back here to the farm.” “Now my neighbor can walk across the fence and buy a rib eye steak from me.” Joel Salatin Thomas Massie
Farm Action16,673 次观看 • 1 个月前
![“Four grocers control 85% of the grocery market.” “Four meatpackers control 85% of meatpacking.” “Two seed companies control 90% of the seed genetics in farming.” “Three big [companies] control 85% of the inputs.” “We’ve allowed the consolidation of just about every industry to the detriment of the consumer.” Regenerative farmer Zach Lahn is calling for strong and swift antitrust action to break up Big Ag monopolies. “Community values, according to our ancestors and according to our Founders, were more important than shareholder value.” “Thomas Jefferson actually said in the early 1800s, right after they founded the country… I hope we kill in its infancy the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations who are already challenging us to a battle of wills.” “And in the 80s, we really took our eye off the ball.” “Now, we’re facing the repercussions of that.” Zach Lahn Leah Wilson](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2033561384835817482/amplify_video_thumb/2033561235690491905/img/m4BRH_j-TBvN8Euo.jpg)
“Four grocers control 85% of the grocery market.” “Four meatpackers control 85% of meatpacking.” “Two seed companies control 90% of the seed genetics in farming.” “Three big [companies] control 85% of the inputs.” “We’ve allowed the consolidation of just about every industry to the detriment of the consumer.” Regenerative farmer Zach Lahn is calling for strong and swift antitrust action to break up Big Ag monopolies. “Community values, according to our ancestors and according to our Founders, were more important than shareholder value.” “Thomas Jefferson actually said in the early 1800s, right after they founded the country… I hope we kill in its infancy the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations who are already challenging us to a battle of wills.” “And in the 80s, we really took our eye off the ball.” “Now, we’re facing the repercussions of that.” Zach Lahn Leah Wilson
Farm Action74,035 次观看 • 7 个月前
“We’ve lost 86,000 cattle feeders like me.” “Over half of our cow-calf producers are gone.” Farmer Mike Callicrate just delivered an urgent plea to Congress: “Break up the corporate middlemen who are extracting an unfair share of the retail dollar while denying a fair income to producers and workers.” “Since I first got into the cattle industry in 1972, retail meat prices have become increasingly disconnected from cattle prices as monopolistic middlemen push producer prices lower and consumer prices higher.” “The producers’ share of the consumer dollar is now around 50% in beef, down from around 80% in 1970, when we had a lot of independent meat packers all over the country working with independent grocery stores.” “What can be done?” “We need to reform USDA’s meat inspection service to make it more workable for small processing plants.” “Invest in local regional food infrastructure and outlaw government purchasing of meat from large, multinational and foreign-owned corporations.” “That business should go to small and mid-sized slaughter plants, keeping the wealth from agriculture local, creating jobs, and revitalizing rural communities.” “We’re now relying on imports at a time when dietary guidelines are re-emphasizing high quality protein.” “Small plants like mine need fair food policy.” “Small processors have essentially no access to wholesale markets due to unfair advantages and predatory practices of big food companies.” “It’s past time to enforce antitrust laws and break up the meat monopolies like Congress did in the 1920s.” “Otherwise, consumer prices will remain disconnected from prices paid to producers, and will likely keep rising.” Mike Callicrate
Farm Action76,731 次观看 • 8 个月前
🚨“President Trump’s plan to buy beef from Argentina is a betrayal of the American rancher.” Washington bureaucrats are on the brink of delivering a crushing betrayal of our farmers—and the America First agenda. America’s soybean market just CRASHED after China stopped buying our soybeans. Now, our cattle ranchers are on the brink of the same fate. Illinois cattle rancher and Farm Action’s Senior Director of Programs Christian Lovell warned that a new plan to buy Argentinian beef would amount to a “betrayal” of loyal America First ranchers—and would fail to solve any of our problems: “Importing Argentinian beef would send U.S. cattle prices plummeting—and with the meatpacking industry as consolidated as it is, consumers may not see lower beef prices either.” Just four major meatpackers control roughly 85% of our market. The system is RIGGED, and importing beef from Argentina into this rigged system will not lower costs for families or restore fair markets for producers. This announcement comes right after Argentina took hold of the soybean market after China stopped buying from American farmers. And what is Washington doing? Considering another $20 billion BAILOUT for Argentina. Read our full press release revealing why this proposal is a BETRAYAL of America’s ranchers below:🧵 Clip credit: Aaron Rupar
Farm Action103,518 次观看 • 1 年前
![“[Farm] bankruptcies are up 46%.” “Farmer suicide is three and a half times the national average.” “The average age for a farmer is 64.” “Kids aren’t wanting to stay on the farm.” Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn just said what every farmer is thinking. We’re in a new “farm crisis.” And “the dominoes are falling.” “A lot of Nebraska is drying up… Kansas, Texas.” He warned that the largest freshwater aquifer in the U.S., the Ogallala Aquifer, is being depleted “six times faster than it gets replenished.” “I was talking to a 911 operator out by Alliance, Nebraska, and he was saying their phones ring all day long of farmers not knowing what to do.” “This is real.” “Not enough people are talking about it because 2% of the population feed the rest of us.” This is why we are fighting for sweeping changes to the 2026 Farm Bill. We cannot go on with business as usual. The future of independent farmers and our entire food system is at stake. Dan Osborn Jon Favreau Pod Save America](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2107571496398753959/amplify_video_thumb/2107571436500004865/img/7qsqQKRRSrWU366u.jpg)
“[Farm] bankruptcies are up 46%.” “Farmer suicide is three and a half times the national average.” “The average age for a farmer is 64.” “Kids aren’t wanting to stay on the farm.” Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn just said what every farmer is thinking. We’re in a new “farm crisis.” And “the dominoes are falling.” “A lot of Nebraska is drying up… Kansas, Texas.” He warned that the largest freshwater aquifer in the U.S., the Ogallala Aquifer, is being depleted “six times faster than it gets replenished.” “I was talking to a 911 operator out by Alliance, Nebraska, and he was saying their phones ring all day long of farmers not knowing what to do.” “This is real.” “Not enough people are talking about it because 2% of the population feed the rest of us.” This is why we are fighting for sweeping changes to the 2026 Farm Bill. We cannot go on with business as usual. The future of independent farmers and our entire food system is at stake. Dan Osborn Jon Favreau Pod Save America
Farm Action11,466 次观看 • 1 个月前