Media
Press Releases
Farm Bill Could Stabilize Market Volatility, Benefit Farmers, Consumers and Environment
New economic modeling from Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment shows benefits from system of fair prices and reserves...
Meat Plant Closings Show Fragility of “Get Big” System, Say Midwest Family Farm Groups
Global players forced small meatpacking plants out, farmers and workers pay the price The announced closing of Smithfield’s...
Midwest Family Farm Groups Want Aid to Get to People, Not Global Agribusiness
Groups Concerned That Trump's USDA Will Continue to Favor IndustryFamily farm-based organizations in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,...
Midwest Family Farm Group Travels to Washington to talk NAFTA, Farm Crisis
Disparaging Comments by Ag Secretary Perdue About the Future of Independent Family Farms Should Spur Congressional ActionFamily...
Midwest Family Farm Group Step Up Fight Against Factory Farms
In State Capitals across the Midwest, opposition to legislation pushed by corporate agriculture lobbyists to favor factory farms...
Opinion Pieces
Corporate Meat Lobby Claims They’re The Scapegoat When They’re Really the Problem
Recently, in a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), a mouthpiece for the...
Will Joe Biden’s Executive Order Spark Real Change in Food Production?
President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order aimed at increasing competition across all sectors of the economy. This...
Biden Executive Order to Promote Competition in Agriculture and Food is a Good First Step
Earlier this month, President Biden issued an executive order that takes significant action to reduce the trend of corporate...
Family Farm Can Help Solve Climate Change
Solving the climate crisis is one of our generation's most important responsibilities, and as independent family farmers from...
What Can the Biden Admin Do to Make Our Food System More Resilient? Make It More Local.
An under-the-radar executive order signed by the Biden administration in late February could have big implications for our food...
Missourians Need to Make Their Voices Heard about the Future of the Farm and Food System
Missouri Rural Crisis Center recently sent in comments to the Biden Administration and USDA in response to their request for...
We Don’t Need a ‘Moonshot’ for Faux Burgers—We Need To Hold ‘Big Meat’ Accountable
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Ezra Klein proposed a moonshot investment in “Meatless Meat.” Klein makes a cogent,...
Family Farms are the Solution, Corporate Agriculture is the Problem
Last month, Missouri Rural Crisis Center held a telephone town hall with thousands of Missourians across our state. The...
Missouri’s Groundwater Threatened from Corporate Factory Farm Expansion
A 10,467-hog factory farm is attempting to build near farms and homes, near the Poosey Conservation Area in Livingston County....
President Biden, Don’t Make the Same Mistakes in Rural America
On Feb. 23, Tom Vilsack was confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, again. In 2011, I helped write an op-ed called “What a...
CFFE in the News
A Mega-Dairy Is Transforming Arizona’s Aquifer and Farming Lifestyles: Minnesota’s Riverview Dairy Has Deep Pockets and Long Straws
In the winter of 2018, Lauralynn Cornelsen moved out of her mobile home in Sunizona, an unincorporated community in southeast...
Revealed: The True Extent of America’s Food Monopolies, And Who Pays the Price
A handful of powerful companies control the majority market share of almost 80% of dozens of grocery items bought regularly by...
‘There are Ghosts in the Land’: How US Mega-Dairies are Killing off Small Farms
In late January last year, dairy farmers filled a pub in the tiny town of Greenwald, Minnesota (population 238). Organisers...
After tough year, Midwestern Farmers Prepare for New Direction from Washington
Bonnie and Vance Haugen’s small dairy farm weathered nearly three decades of relentless market forces, shifting government...
Why Aren’t USDA Conservation Programs Paying Farmers More to Improve Soil?
Ron Rosmann’s 700-acre certified organic grain and livestock farm in Shelby County, Iowa is an island in a sea of very large...
While Missouri Farmers Fight Plan for 10,000 Hogs as Neighbors, State Sides with Big Ag
Trump is Bailing Out Big Meat — And Further Screwing the Planet
At an event announcing $16 billion in federal relief for food producers on May 19, Donald Trump spoke at a podium flanked by...
Meat Plant Closings Show the Fragility of ‘Get Big’ System
The announced closing of Smithfield’s Sioux Falls meatpacking plant due to a COVID-19 outbreak affecting over 600 workers is a...
Farm Orgs Call for Oversight of Covid Aid Package
Family farm organizations in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota are calling for strong oversight of the recently passed...
Farmers to Congress: Make Sure Coronavirus Aid isn’t Just for Agribusiness
A coalition of organizations that represent rural and farming communities called on Congress to ensure that federal coronavirus...