What would the plan do?

Booker’s platform pulls from a number of his already-announced promises on climate action, health care and economic inequality. It also includes reestablishing a White House Rural Council and senior adviser focused on rural America.

Reining in corporate consolidation is a major tenet of his plan to expand health care services in rural communities, which are losing hospitals and health care professionals, as well as addressing the marketplace for farmers and ranchers. Booker said that he would increase penalties for companies engaging in anti-competitive practices, as well as update merger guidelines and antitrust enforcement priorities.

How much will it cost?

Booker did not specify what overall cost of his rural platform would be, nor how he plans to pay for it.

To tackle the opioid epidemic, Booker pledged to spend $100 billion over a decade on competitive grants for state and local governments and another $800 million for tribal governments to boost treatment services and prevention programs.

The candidate also promised to invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, an unspecified portion of which would be tailored to the needs of rural communities by providing public transit and testing new modes of ride-hailing.

To expand rural broadband, Booker said he would make an “unprecedented” federal investment, but didn’t attach a price tag. He also would automatically enroll low-income families in a Federal Communications Commission program that helps them pay for monthly telephone and internet bills.

Booker, like many other presidential contenders, said his climate agenda can create economic opportunities in rural America. He would boost annual funding for two voluntary USDA conservation initiatives — the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and Conservation Stewardship Program — by $7 billion each. EQIP and CSP pays farmers and landowners to adopt practices that protect the environment, such as preventing fertilizer runoff so it doesn’t pollute waterways.

How does the plan stack up?

Booker is among many candidates who have said they would strengthen federal antitrust enforcement, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden. The New Jersey Democrat’s plan to place a moratorium on future food and agribusiness mergers does set him apart from those candidates.

Booker doesn’t go as far as to call for breaking up large corporations in industries like agriculture and tech, which both Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have done. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said the Justice Department should use its existing power to investigate the seed and chemical sectors and break up corporations “when appropriate.”

When it comes to infrastructure, Booker is among the majority of 2020 Democrats with ideas for how to spend billions — and in some cases trillions — of dollars, but without a clear way to pay for it. This funding issue is the major hangup in negotiations between Congress and the Trump administration over sweeping infrastructure legislation.

To address climate change for agriculture, Booker’s plan for USDA conservation programs is similar to other candidates', although he is one of the few to state a cost. Warren said she would spend $15 billion each year, while Tom Steyer said he would “mobilize $50 billion” to help farmers implement climate best practices, but didn’t outline a time frame or name specific programs.