Sen. Bernie Sanders' plan extends beyond agriculture and into rural communities broadly by proposing to increase investment in rural education and health care. | John Locher/AP Photo Democratic Candidates Policies Sen. Bernie Sanders' plan to expand agriculture and rural policies The 2020 contender calls for breaking up big agriculture companies and restructuring USDA programs.

Bernie Sanders on Sunday released a sweeping rural and agriculture plan that targets big companies and calls for more federal investment in struggling rural areas.



What’s the reason for the plan?

Appearing at a county fairgrounds in Osage, Iowa, Sanders made the case that liberal policies in Republican strongholds are what’s needed to save a slumping farm economy and distressed communities.


“Some people are writing off rural America,” said Sanders, one of the leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He was introduced by several local farmers before taking the stage.

“But I come from one of the most rural and beautiful states in the United States,” the Vermont senator said. “I will not write off rural America.”

Sanders is the second candidate, following Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to get serious about trying to win over traditionally red regions by rolling out comprehensive policy plans that seek to restructure government programs and step up antitrust enforcement.

It comes as farmers’ incomes continue to slide, declining to its lowest point since 2016 this quarter, the Commerce Department said this week. Farmers, meanwhile, continue to be whacked by retaliatory tariffs as a result of President Donald Trump’s global trade war.



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What would it do?

Sanders said on Sunday he believed that rapid consolidation of the agriculture sector was to blame for farmers’ economic problems, and demanded that mega-mergers be broken up. He also called for the implementation of a ban on future mergers of large agriculture companies, as well as prohibiting vertical combinations.

“In rural America we are seeing giant agribusiness conglomerates extract as much wealth out of small communities as they possibly can while family farmers are going bankrupt and in many ways are being treated like modern day indentured servants,” Sanders said.

He also called for a “right-to-repair” law granting farmers the ability to fix their own equipment, which some farm manufacturers currently forbid them from doing.

He also went after “factory farms” by vowing to remove their air emissions exemption and regulate them under the Clean Air Act as factories.

Who would benefit the most?

Independent family farmers need more support from the government, Sanders said, and the plan seeks to reform the subsidy system so that more federal dollars go to small and mid-sized family farms instead of the largest producers. It suggests moving away from a subsidy system and toward a “parity system,” which “means setting price floors and matching supply with demand so farmers are guaranteed the cost of production and family living expenses.”

Hinting at the dairy crisis, Sanders said he wanted to enact supply management programs to prevent shortages or surpluses of commodities and ensure that farmers can make a living wage. Dairy farmers are facing dire circumstances caused in part by a milk glut and declining demand — dairy bankruptcies continue to climb rapidly.

What about trade and climate change?

In a direct rebuttal to the Trump administration, Sanders said that the government’s trade policies shouldn’t hurt farmers and urged for “fair trade partnerships” that don’t benefit only multinational companies at the expense of producers.

Citing the industry’s contributions to climate change, Sanders said that agriculture could be part of the solution by playing a major role in reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. He wants to encourage farmers to transition to more environmentally sensitive operations and incorporate more sustainable practices, which would be accomplished by providing grants, technical assistance and debt relief to producers.

Who else would it help?

The plan extends beyond agriculture and into rural communities broadly by proposing to increase investment in rural education and health care. Sanders is calling for increasing rural teachers’ pay as well as the resources offered to students, such as ESL and college accreditation classes.

More funding should be used to build rural health care infrastructure like hospitals, maternity wards, mental health clinics and drug addiction recovery centers, the plan states.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.