Document Calls for Bipartisan Support to Challenge Corporate Monopolies Sucking Wealth Out of Rural America  

Mexico, Missouri – Farm Action Fund today released a Founding Purpose, Preamble and Bill of Rights document calling for rural communities to have a fundamental right to economic freedom—and launching the next phase of its Rural Independence Initiative (RII), a national movement to take back economic power from the corporations that have captured America’s food system and hollowed out rural communities. Farm Action Fund President Joe Maxwell was on Tucker Carlson this week outlining the urgent need for this nonpartisan initiative to address America’s rural crisis.

The declaration begins with a simple truth:

America’s promise has never been that prosperity belongs to a few.

It is the promise that every person who works hard, takes responsibility and serves their community should have a fair opportunity to build a good life.

But that promise is impossible when monopolies decide what farmers are paid, what families pay for food, whether a rural hospital stays open, whether an independent grocery store survives, or whether a community gets to decide what happens to its own land.

“Rural America doesn’t need a handout. Rural America needs its freedom back,” said Joe Maxwell, President of Farm Action Fund and a fourth-generation farmer. “For decades, corporations have consolidated power over our farms, our food, our communities and our economy while both parties in Washington watched. We’re drawing a line in the dirt. Farmers and rural Americans have rights—and we’re going to fight for them.”

The complete document can be found HERE on the Farm Action Fund website.

The Rural Independence Initiative was launched by Farm Action Fund in June as a bipartisan national effort to challenge corporate monopolies and rebuild economic power in rural America. The organization has said the movement is designed to unite Americans across political lines around fair markets, healthy food and economic independence. They have endorsed a bipartisan slate of candidates this year for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

NOT LEFT. NOT RIGHT. INDEPENDENT.

The Rural Independence Initiative deliberately rejects the traditional political divide. Corporate consolidation is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It is an American problem.

“They told us to blame each other,” said Maxwell. “Meanwhile, large corporations were taking control of our economy. They told farmers to get bigger or get out. They told rural communities that their Main Streets were obsolete. They told families that higher prices were inevitable. We believe in competition. We believe in ownership. We believe in local control. We believe in the freedom to build something and pass it on to the next generation. And we believe rural Americans are ready to stand together and take their country back.”

The new Preamble and Bill of Rights for Farmers and Rural America puts those principles into a declaration of what rural Americans should be able to expect from their economy, their government and their communities.

THE RURAL BILL OF RIGHTS

1. The Liberty to Farm and Feed Our Communities

No family should lose its farm because the marketplace has been rigged against them. Farmers deserve fair prices, multiple buyers, transparent contracts, independent processing and the freedom to determine how they farm and what they grow.

2. The Right to Fair, Open and Competitive Markets

Freedom cannot exist where monopolies decide who succeeds. Farm Action Fund is calling for aggressive antitrust enforcement, enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act, action against price fixing and market manipulation, and policies that put competition ahead of corporate consolidation.

3. The Right to Fair Capital

Capital should build communities—not extract wealth from them. Farmers, ranchers and rural entrepreneurs deserve access to competitive credit and local financial institutions capable of investing in the communities they serve.

4. The Right and Freedom to Repair What We Own

If you buy a tractor, combine or other equipment, you should own it—including the right to repair it. Ownership without the right to repair isn’t ownership at all.

5. The Right to Local Control and Protection of Our Land and Natural Resources

Rural communities should have the power to protect their land, water and natural resources. The Initiative calls for local control over land-use decisions, transparency in foreign farmland ownership and protection of productive farmland from unchecked industrial development.

6. The Right to Affordable Energy and Responsible Innovation

Innovation should strengthen rural America—not make rural families pay the bill. Developers of massive data centers and other industrial projects should bear the costs they impose on local infrastructure, while communities retain transparency and a meaningful voice over where those projects are built.

7. The Right to Strong Rural Schools

Every child deserves a full shot at opportunity regardless of ZIP code. That means strong rural public schools, career and technical education, agricultural education, broadband and the resources necessary to keep schools open and teachers teaching.

8. The Right to Healthy Communities

Freedom means more than surviving. Rural Americans deserve hospitals, independent physicians, pharmacies, emergency care, maternal health and mental health services close to home. No community should lose its hospital because a private equity fund found it profitable to close it.

9. The Right and Liberty of Healthy Food Choices

Too many rural communities have become food deserts while surrounded by farmland. Independent grocers should be able to compete, families should have access to fresh food, and farm policy should give farmers an opportunity to grow the fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods their communities need.

10. The Right and Freedom to Make and Grow Things in America

America cannot remain independent while relying on foreign countries for essential goods. Rural communities should be at the center of rebuilding domestic manufacturing, strengthening supply chains, expanding value-added agriculture and creating good-paying jobs.

“A market without competition isn’t capitalism—it’s exploitation,” the Rural Independence Initiative’s founding declaration states.

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About Farm Action Fund

Farm Action Fund is a national advocacy organization dedicated to building a fair, competitive, resilient and healthy agricultural food system that works for farmers, workers and communities—not just corporate monopolies.