Farmer on a tractor.

Farmers Reject Biden’s Pro-Corporate Rural Advisers

Political conventions traditionally feature an orgy of corporate lobbyists and big money courting public officials. You’d think such displays wouldn’t factor into a convention-at-home setup in 2020. After all, where would the lobbyists and hangers-on congregate? The answer is, apparently, on Zoom.

August 17, 2020 | Source: The American Prospect | by David Dayen

Heidi Heitkamp and Tom Vilsack are promoting a failed strategy for rural America. Biden would win support if he broke from that and took on Big Ag.

Political conventions traditionally feature an orgy of corporate lobbyists and big money courting public officials. You’d think such displays wouldn’t factor into a convention-at-home setup in 2020. After all, where would the lobbyists and hangers-on congregate? The answer is, apparently, on Zoom.

An invite obtained by the Prospect from “Leaders of American Agriculture, LLC” touts a virtual symposium on Tuesday night, with “welcome rooms” about such topics as “Ag Value Chain Resiliency Through Innovation.” The sponsors of this event include two major farm lobbying organizations (the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation); trade groups representing biotech, ethanol, agrochemicals, corn, cotton, beet sugar, and seeds; AgTech company Indigo; farm lender CoBank; animal health company Zoetis; soybean agribusiness Bunge; and seed giants Corteva (formed through the merger of Dow and DuPont) and Bayer, which merged with Monsanto in 2018.