A Blueprint to Take Back Our Food System
I've spent a year showing you how a handful of corporations captured our food system. This week, I get to write about one of the best ideas I've seen for actually taking it back.
Last Tuesday, a $45 billion deal put Hellmann's, French's, Cholula, Frank's RedHot, and Old Bay under one corporate roof. Six brands you thought were competing with each other. Now owned by one company.
Four companies control 85% of the beef. Four companies control 90% of the baby formula. One company controls a fifth of the eggs. Two companies own two-thirds of the beer. And four companies control. 67% of the stores where you buy all of it.
The pattern is the same in every industry. And in every one, the biggest players write the rules.
The food industry spent $175 million on political contributions in the last election cycle. Six times what it spent in 1992. That money killed fair market protections for ranchers. It turned a mandatory fee on every cattle sale into a lobbying fund against the ranchers who paid it. It killed a rule that would have stopped chicken companies from rigging farmer pay.
Get big. Buy the rules. Use the rules to get bigger. That's the cycle. And it doesn't break on its own.
I'm in Montana right now, helping a ranch transition to the next generation. And while I'm out here, I found out about something that goes after the root of everything I just described.
It's called the Montana Plan. And the idea is as simple as it sounds. Corporations are created by states. States define what those corporations can and can't do. Montana is about to define them as entities that don't get to spend money on elections.
Sign the petition and help restore the voice of the people. Not in Montana? Share this email and help spark change nationwide.
Eighty percent of Americans think corporate money in politics is a problem. In Montana, 74% said they'd vote to end it.
I write about food and farming because that's what I know. But corporate money doesn't just rig the food system. It rigs healthcare, energy, housing, all of it.
Take the money out of the equation and the rules start working for people again. That's what Montana is trying to do. Not just for food. For everything.
The initiative needs 30,000 signatures by June 19. If you're in Montana, sign here.
If you're not, share this email. The framework is built so any state can follow. Every person who sees it is a seed for the next one.
Your farmer,
Cody