The Farmland for Farmers Act – a bill that would ban big corporations from buying farmland and timberland and make them ineligible for taxpayer-funded farm programs and subsidies – was introduced last summer in the Senate by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Corporations and billionaires are increasingly buying up farmland for its value as a financial asset, driving up the cost of land for farmers and driving more industrial agribusiness that hurts the environment and communities and destroys rural jobs and livelihoods. Bill Gates made headlines a few years ago as the largest individual owner of farmland, but the problem is much bigger than Gates alone.
We have worked in Congress to educate members about how corporate control of farmland is slipping under the radar of policymakers, while rural people wonder who is buying their land and whether their communities can still survive as family farms and local businesses disappear.
That is why it’s so great to see this legislation from Sen. Booker, who has been a champion for sustainable agriculture and for farmer and rural worker livelihoods, and who has a deep understanding of the destructiveness of our industrial agriculture system.
Now that the Farm Bill has been introduced and is currently being debated and voted on, the time to push to include key language from the Farmland for Farmers Act is now.
This legislation wouldn’t solve all the problems caused by industrial agriculture, large-scale farming, or corporate control over our food system. However, it would contribute greatly to the de-financialization of farmland, which is critical for ensuring broad access to land and the human right to food. As long as corporations control the food system, the system’s purpose will be to capture as much profit as possible. We need to ensure that our food systems are being run for the purpose of nourishing everyone, deepening our cultures, and restoring and regenerating our planet.
This bill is also critical for beginning the shift toward agroecology within mainstream agriculture in the US. Agroecology – which works with nature, doesn’t use pesticides or herbicides, is reliant on biodiversity, and values women and youth – requires farmers to make many decisions on their farm and to utilize their knowledge and creativity to solve problems. The corporate model of farming, which goes hand-in-hand with corporations owning land, takes all of that away.
And finally, this bill would be a way of defunding corporate agribusiness and breaking its control over the food system. We have seen the tremendous impact of the fossil fuel divestment movement, which is helping to spur climate action and a transition away from fossil fuels by denying those companies financing. This bill would do something similar for agribusiness, because it would also bar corporations that do own land from accessing government subsidies and programs, which would be a strong financial push to transition our agriculture system to agroecology.
This bill does not do enough to support Black and Brown and Indigenous farmers or to get land into the hands of the many landless farmers and farmworkers who want land to grow ecologically. But it is an important first step and a way to educate the public about these issues.
Right now, we need to address the threat of Wall Street control of farmland and rally support to make land accessible for those who want to grow food. Take action with us!
