Joe Sestak Agriculture Policy

[brooklynite]

This week, I announced my agriculture policy platform – which I believe is truly transformative. You can find it in full on my website (here).My key priorities are:

Stop the reckless use of scattershot tariffs that hurt American farmers.

Strengthen antitrust laws and enforce them in the agricultural industry.

End subsidies for industrial farming corporations, and dramatically increase subsidies for farmers practicing or transitioning to sustainable methods.

Protect US farmers by instituting a “Buy American” policy for all federal procurement programs.
Reinstate mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork.

Prevent foreign countries and corporations from buying up US farmland.

Stand up for the “Right to Repair” farm equipment and other high technology.

Improve and expand programs that help farmers of color and prospective farmers from historically underrepresented communities to access farmland and credit.

Create a National Land Bank as part of a 21st Century Sustainable Homestead Act, to put unutilized farmland into production and expand access to organic food.

Strengthen protections for migrant farmworkers, and expand vital guest worker programs in agricultural industries.

Increase nutrition assistance for needy families.

Institute mandatory on-package labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs) in clear, visible language, because consumers have a right to know what they are eating.

Launch a thorough scientific survey of the safety and efficacy of GMOs and common chemicals used in agriculture, with particular attention paid to known hazardous compounds like glyphosate, dicamba, atrazine, chlorpyrifos, malathion & neonicotinoids.

Restore accountability and oversight to the USDA and FDA by removing corporate lobbyists from positions of power, and begin basing agricultural policy on sound science.

Fund research into climate stabilizing agriculture, and incentivize farmers to use regenerative, carbon-sequestering methods.

Expand funding for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the National Plant Germplasm System, which are critical to our future food security.