Joe’s story
Joe grew up on his family’s farm. Fifth generation. His great-great-grandfather broke that ground. Joe always voted Republican — it’s just what farmers do. Republicans believe in hard work, self-reliance, staying out of people’s business. Those are Joe’s values too.
But over the last twenty years, Joe has watched his county change. The Hendersons sold out. The Millers sold out. The co-op closed. The farm supply store closed. The school consolidated with the next town over. The hospital became a clinic. The clinic cut its hours.
Joe’s corn prices are set by four companies that control 90% of grain trading. His equipment is made by one company that holds a patent on its software so he can’t fix his own tractor. His hogs have to travel 200 miles to the nearest slaughterhouse — owned by a Chinese company — because the local ones all closed.
Joe still votes Republican. He just can’t quite explain why anymore.
The facts, plain and simple
160K
Farms lost between 2017 and 2024 — an 8% decline in just seven years
34%
Of dairy farms lost since 2017. Since 2002: 61% of all dairy farms gone.
130+
Rural hospitals closed since 2010. Over 300 more at immediate risk of closure.
4
Companies control 85% of the beef market. 90% of grain trading. 85% of corn seeds.
The family farm is not disappearing because of bad weather or lazy farmers. It is disappearing because of deliberate policy choices made over decades — choices that consolidated agricultural markets into the hands of a small number of giant corporations, stripped away antitrust protections that used to keep those corporations in check, and funneled farm subsidies to the largest operations while leaving small and mid-sized farms to compete on an uneven playing field they can’t win on.
The result: 20% of farms now control nearly 70% of US farmland. The farms selling over $5 million annually — less than 1% of all farms — account for 42% of all agricultural sales. Meanwhile, in places like Kossuth County, Iowa, the population has fallen from 22,000 to 14,000 over four decades. Schools merge. Churches close. Businesses shutter. Towns dwindle.
What Republicans have done about it
Trump’s trade war devastated farm exports
When Trump launched a trade war with China, Mexico, and Canada — the three largest buyers of American agricultural exports — farmers bore the brunt. China halted purchases of US soybeans. Mexico and Canada moved to new trading partners. Farm income plummeted. The administration paid out $28 billion in bailouts to offset losses — losses the administration created.
The 2025 Republican megabill cuts $70 billion from rural hospitals
The Republican budget bill cuts nearly $70 billion in Medicaid funding for rural hospitals over ten years. A rural hospital is already 62% less likely to close if it’s in a Medicaid expansion state. These cuts will force closures in communities that have no other option — where the nearest emergency room is already 40 miles away.
Republicans gutted USDA enforcement of corporate consolidation
The Packers and Stockyards Act exists to protect farmers from corporate price manipulation. During Trump’s first term, his administration gutted the USDA agency responsible for enforcing it — giving meatpackers and grain traders free rein to squeeze independent farmers even harder.
Republicans cut 1,200 Farm Service Agency staff in 2025
The FSA is where farmers go for operating loans, disaster assistance, and technical help. Republicans cut 1,200 FSA staff — on top of slashing nearly one-fifth of the entire USDA workforce. Farmers who need emergency assistance are now waiting months for responses that used to take days.
SNAP cuts hit rural communities hardest
Rural areas have higher rates of SNAP participation than cities — both because incomes are lower and because nearly a quarter of every dollar spent on food flows back to farmers. The Republican budget cuts nearly $300 billion from SNAP. This reduces demand for the food farmers grow and eliminates one of the few stable markets small farms have left.
The real betrayal
The Farm Bureau is not what it says it is
The American Farm Bureau Federation presents itself as “the voice of agriculture.” Its real business is selling insurance through FBL Financial Group. It consistently lobbies for policies that benefit large agribusiness corporations — consolidation, deregulation, trade deals that favor exporters over family farms — while presenting those positions as what farmers want. Most farmers have never voted on the Farm Bureau’s policy positions.
Farmers voted for these policies. They didn’t have to.
The consolidation of rural America is not inevitable. It is the result of specific policy choices: weakening antitrust enforcement, cutting rural development programs, allowing vertical integration of agricultural supply chains, blocking the right to repair farm equipment, and letting corporate interests write the Farm Bill. These are choices. They can be made differently.
What would actually help rural America
Break up agricultural monopolies. Enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act. Pass the Right to Repair Act so farmers can fix their own equipment. Protect and expand rural Medicaid. Invest in rural broadband, infrastructure, and schools. Restore USDA staffing and services. These are not radical ideas — they are what Democrats have proposed and Republicans have blocked.
When someone pushes back — what to say
They say:
“Republicans support farmers. Democrats want to regulate everything.”
You say: “I understand why it feels that way — that’s been the message for fifty years. But let’s look at what actually happened. Under Republican trade policy, China stopped buying American soybeans. Under Republican budget policy, rural hospitals are closing. Under Republican deregulation, four companies now control the beef market and farmers get less for their cattle while consumers pay more at the grocery store. The regulation that got cut wasn’t hurting farmers — it was protecting them from corporate price manipulation.”
They say:
“Family farms are struggling because of globalization. Nobody can fix that.”
You say: “Globalization is real, but it doesn’t explain why four companies control 85% of the beef market, or why a farmer can’t fix his own John Deere tractor without a company technician. Those are monopoly problems — policy problems. The 1980s farm crisis was caused by policy decisions. The current consolidation crisis is also caused by policy decisions. Policy can be changed.”
They say:
“At least Republicans don’t push green regulations that would kill farming.”
You say: “Farmers are already living with the consequences of climate change — extreme droughts, unpredictable weather, flooding that destroys crops. Ignoring climate change doesn’t protect farmers; it just means they face those consequences without any plan. And the clean energy transition creates enormous opportunities for rural America — wind and solar farms on agricultural land, new rural jobs, energy independence. Republicans killing the IRA killed those opportunities too.”
Rural America deserves better than this. The answer is SVR.
Stop Voting Republican — until they stop selling family farms to corporate agriculture.
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