Farmers and Ranchers Head to DC to Level the Playing Field
Carlton Sanders started a job he truly loved—raising chickens—in 1991 in Forest, Mississippi. In 2001, the small company he sold his chickens to was bought by agribusiness giant Koch Foods, and everything changed. “They treated me like a slave,” he said. Sanders, who is Black, says Koch Foods drove him out of business with discriminatory practices, many of which are documented in a recent ProPublica investigation.
July 19, 2019 | Source: Civil Eats | by Lisa Held
Saying they’ve endured years of unfair contracts, discrimination, and retaliation from a handful of big companies that control the industry, farmers and ranchers are asking USDA to enforce the GIPSA rules.
Carlton Sanders started a job he truly loved—raising chickens—in 1991 in Forest, Mississippi. In 2001, the small company he sold his chickens to was bought by agribusiness giant Koch Foods, and everything changed. “They treated me like a slave,” he said. Sanders, who is Black, says Koch Foods drove him out of business with discriminatory practices, many of which are documented in a recent ProPublica investigation.
As he described his 2017 foreclosure hearing, he struggled to hold back tears. The judge asked if he’d be able to vacate his farm within 16 days. “I said, ‘It’s not enough [time], but I’m just tired. I’ll burn up the rest of it, or they can have it.”