Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Ann Klees

To the Editor:

The new Farm Bill is against states’ rights. Back in the 1970s, the Republican party touted local control - laws should be made for and by the people who were affected. Over time, the Republican party has switched to a “one size fits all.” And many times, the one size gives the large corporation the benefit, not the individual.

The new “Food Security and Farm Protection Act” is no exception.  This bill takes away states’ rights to regulate agriculture, “dictated not by local voters, but by corporate lobbying” (Harkin, The Des Moines Register, June 5, 2025, 7A).

In the United States from 2018 to 2020, “AgReliant, Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta accounted for 83.4% of corn seed sales and 78.1% of soybean seed sales” (Jenkins, DTN.com, 10/16/2024). AgReliant Genetics is headquartered in Canada; Bayer is headquartered in Germany; Syngenta is headquartered in Switzerland.

Beef packing is not different. “In the U.S., four major corporations - Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company - control approximately 85% of the beef processing market” (Diaz, DoVen Foods.com,11/7/2024).  JBS USA and National Beef Packing Company are Brazilian-based corporations.

The fight against this new farm bill is a fight to see who has control - state control by the voters of that state or federal control influenced by lobbying of international corporations. Do farmers want to be controlled by international corporations, or do they want to control their own operations?

Senator Joni Ernst is the bill’s leading sponsor. Call her and tell her that this bill is not for Iowa’s farmers (202-224-3254). Call Senator Chuck Grassley (202-224-3744) and tell him to vote “no”, to stand up for states’ rights and the right for farmer states to regulate what’s best for them - not for the international corporation. And remind him that he too is a farmer.

Ann Klees
Waterville