Take Action To Help Farmers & Ranchers
Ways to Take Action
Help Ranchers in North Dakota Get Fair Prices
Cattle ranchers need your help for spot market reform!
Four meat packers control almost 80% of the meat market. They use this control of the market to drive down prices and affect prices on the cash markets (known as the spot market). By artificially raising and lowering the demand of cattle, this means that North Dakota producers get paid less for their cattle, while packers make more profits by charging more for meat at the grocery store.
Senators Chuck Grassley and Jon Tester want to include their Spot Market Bill as an amendment to the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting Reauthorization Act. This expires December 11th, 2020 and Congress needs to reauthorize it.
The Spot Market Bill proposes that at least 50% of all beef be purchased on the Spot Market preventing speculators from manipulating the prices. The more beef sold on the open market means that commodities traders and meat packers have to buy based on actual demand rather than futures contracts.
Help Family Farms
Family farms are in jeopardy in North Dakota.
We believe that small policy changes will not be enough to fix our broken system and sweeping changes will be necessary to save farmers and ranchers in rural North Dakota. We strongly urge you to take action and support Senator Cory Booker’s Senate Bill 3221 - Farm System Reform Act of 2019.
Help Rural North Dakota
North Dakota rural communities are suffering from economic pressures due to COVID 19. Many of the provisions of the CARES act are expiring or expired and with this uncertainty North Dakotans across the state especially hurting family farmers and ranchers in rural North Dakota. Without aid, some family farms are in jeopardy.
As the cold winter months approach, these problems are only going to get worse. North Dakota's delegation needs to work with Mitch McConnell and House leadership to pass some form of relief that can assist family farms and small businesses through the winter.
Recent Posts
The Future of North Dakota
“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” — Will Rogers
Livestock & Market Manipulation
“You would be much amused with the animals ‘round the ranch.”― Theodore Roosevelt
ND Farmers & Ranchers In Crisis | COVID Hits
When 2020 began, there was a sense of cautious optimism among farmers.
Weather Part 2
“Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic…..
Farmers and Ranchers in Crisis: Extreme Weather
“Farmers do not grow crops, a farmer creates an environment in which crops can grow.” -Unknown
Farmers and Ranchers in Crisis Part 2: Federal Help Falls Short
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower