This farm policy expert just exposed the monopoly holding independent poultry farmers hostage. Austin Frerick: “A chicken farmer in America, you don’t own your chicken.” “You’re given the bird, you’re given the feed by the company.” “You take out a bunch of debt to build a building to their specifications.” And farmers are not paid a “flat fee” for their birds. They’re thrown into something called the tournament system, where corporations pit farmers against each other. They rank each farmer based on how much weight their chickens gained and the amount of feed the farmers were given. “Whoever adds the most gets paid the most.” “Whoever adds the least gets paid the least.” And the additional pay given to the best performers isn’t a bonus. It’s money taken away from the lowest performers. Corporations like Tyson and JBS-owned Pilgrim’s Pride realized that actually growing the birds is “the riskiest part.” “So they basically contract that out to the farmer, put it on you, and then they do everything else.” “They do all the value added.” “They butcher it.” “It is like textbook monopoly.” “You’re basically shifting the cost on everyone else.” The USDA was about to implement a new rule to reform this broken system this year. The new rule would have banned payment deductions from lower-performing farmers, giving farmers some much-needed room to breathe. But under President Trump and Secretary Brooke Rollins, USDA plans to roll back this important rule, despite our fierce opposition. @AustinFrerick @PrairieFarmPod