Pro-worker, pro-farmer and populist U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson released his visionary agriculture and food plan and toured a dairy farm in Cambridge. Nelson’s father grew up on a dairy farm in Polk County, but Wisconsin has now lost over 85% of local dairy farmers over the past 40 years due to corporate concentration and corruption, causing a severe rural crisis and jeopardizing Wisconsin’s “Dairyland” heritage. China and Brazil now own major parts of our food system. Consumers are also being gouged at the grocery store by this consolidation. Nelson believes we need a food system that serves the interests of consumers and farmers, not those of corporate agribusiness. Nelson is the only candidate to have done a 72 county “Full Nelson” tour and to consistently tout a rural agenda from the beginning of his race. He is the only candidate in the race to propose a new dairy revitalization plan to stabilize milk prices, to advocate for a hemp policy that benefits smaller farms and to speak out about the damaging impacts of out-of-state industrial factory farms, including the proposed 26,000 hog farm in Burnett County designed to export cheap pork to China. 

Nelson said, “The recent run up in food prices and the hollowing out of our rural communities are both rooted in corporate control and consolidation in our food and agriculture system. Just like we’ve allowed our domestic manufacturing to go abroad, so we are allowing our family farms to whither and foreign companies to take control. It used to be in my dad’s time you could milk 50 cows and support your family. Now we have only 6,500 remaining dairy farmers. Consumers don’t benefit from this system either. We need food sovereignty as a matter of national security to rebuild a local, resilient food economy. I’m proud to be the first Senate candidate to propose such a vision. I’m the only candidate to have spoken out about the threats of out-of-state industrial factory farms in places like Burnett County. We do not need Wisconsin to turn into another Iowa!”

To read the plan click HERE.

Nelson’s plan includes:

New Dairy Revitalization growth management plan to stop the dairy crisis

Break up ag monopolies in the seed, fertilizer, meat, dairy and others in the food chain

Checkoff reform to stop unfairly taxing farmers and ending bloc voting

Investing in Strategic Grain Reserves to help with food inflation

Reforming farm subsidies to invest in local and regional food economies

Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling so we know where our food comes from

Stopping out of state industrial factory farms from invading rural WI and stricter oversight over the ones already here.

Growing hemp to benefit small farms and revitalize our paper industry

Investing in renewable energy and homegrown fuel like ethanol

Medicare for All to help farmers access critical mental health care and other health care needs

Taking on big tech to get universal broadband access

Original source can be found here.