50 Years of Class Warfare Against Farmers

Farmers work harder than ever, produce more than ever, and feed the world. Yet the money isn’t in your pocket. The prices you get for wheat, corn, and soy have been flat for decades, while food corporations, processors, and retailers pull in massive profits. This isn’t an accident—it’s the result of economic policy designed to benefit corporations at your expense.

1. The 1970s Policy Shift: “Get Big or Get Out”

Before the 1970s, farm programs managed supply and guaranteed fair prices. That ended when politicians told farmers to plant “fencerow to fencerow.” Price supports were scrapped, replaced with subsidies. Instead of fixing low prices, the government promised to cover some of the losses. You were pushed to overproduce, driving prices down. Subsidies didn’t save you—they trapped you in a system that guarantees cheap grain for corporate buyers.

2. Cheap Grain, Big Profits—for Them

Low prices for corn, wheat, and soy are a goldmine for processors, ethanol plants, feedlots, and packaged food companies. You sell your crop for less than it costs to produce; they turn it into products with fat profit margins. A bushel of wheat makes 90 loaves of bread. At $6 a bushel, your share is about seven cents per loaf. Bread sells for $4–6. Who wins here? Not the farmer.

3. Consolidation Stacks the Deck

Farmers were told to compete. Meanwhile, your buyers merged. Four firms dominate global grain trading. A handful control flour milling. Two or three corporations own nearly every bread brand on the shelf. Big-box retailers dictate prices. Millions of farmers face a few corporate giants with all the leverage. That’s not a fair market—that’s rigged.

4. The Lie of “Cheap Food”

Politicians told Americans this system gave them cheap food. That’s a lie. Wheat prices are flat, yet bread costs $4–6 a loaf. You get seven or eight cents. The rest is pocketed by corporations for packaging, marketing, and markup. The “cheap food” policy wasn’t about helping consumers—it was about feeding corporate profits with your labor.

5. Exports Enrich Traders, Not Farmers

You were told to “feed the world.” Instead, you fed the profits of companies like Cargill and ADM. Export-driven policy kept you on the treadmill: plant more, earn less, take on more debt, and depend on subsidies. They make money trading grain; you carry the risk of producing it.

6. Class Warfare, Plain and Simple

This is class warfare. For fifty years, policy has chosen corporations over farmers. It stripped away supply management and fair price programs. It forced overproduction. It left you dependent on subsidies. And it shifted wealth from rural communities to corporate boardrooms.

This system wasn’t your failure—it was built this way. To win back your future, farmers must demand change: restore fair prices, end monopoly power, and stop policies that subsidize corporations instead of producers.

For fifty years, you’ve been on the losing side of class warfare. It’s time to fight back.