WASHINGTON – This week over 250 Farmers Union members from across the country arrived in Washington, DC to advocate for family farmers. Over the course of the week, Farmers Union members attended hundreds of Congressional meetings, met with over a dozen federal agencies, and directly participated in discussions with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Rostin Behnam, among other leaders.
“This has been an incredibly productive and successful fly-in for Farmers Union. It’s a testament to the passion and interest of our members that they’re willing to take time away from the farm and come to Washington and build bipartisan support for Fairness for Farmers and their farm bill priorities,” said NFU President Rob Larew.
In his introductory remarks to Farmers Union members, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said, “In many respects, National Farmers Union has been the architect and the designer of the work we are doing in this administration in terms of farm country and in terms of agriculture.”
“Competition in agriculture is critical. Too often, farmers and livestock producers have too few suppliers to buy from and too few buyers to sell to. Farmers and their families work incredibly hard and deserve to see the fruits of their labor and the American dream,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division in a Department of Justice press release. “[…] Protecting competition and the rule of law in agricultural markets is core to the work of the Antitrust Division, and we will vigorously enforce the antitrust laws in this area.”
For more information on NFU’s policy priorities, visit nfu.org/fly-in.
Photos taken by NFU staff and members throughout the week can be found here, and photos from the USDA briefing can be found here.