Braiding a Holistic, Healing Model for Agriculture

Bari ZeigerEnvironmental Resilience, Farmer Voices on Parity, Food Sovereignty

Death by a Thousand Cuts? The Enbridge Line 3 Oil Pipeline Project, Industrial Agriculture and the Need for Mutual Support

Doug Gurian-ShermanEnvironmental Resilience, Food Sovereignty, Racial Equity

How the Lack of Parity Supports Industrial Livestock Production

Siena ChrismanEconomic Justice, Environmental Resilience

The end of parity pricing and supply management farm programs was a huge boon for agribusiness, particularly the meat industry. As the farm programs were dismantled, farmer grain prices fell to well under the cost of production, giving the meatpacking industry access to below-cost feed grain. Cheap feed was – and still is – a critical component of industrial confinement-based meat production.

Reshaping Supply Management in the US: Looking North and South for Inspiration

Karen Hansen-KuhnEnvironmental Resilience

Restoring Parity and Reducing Ecological Impacts through Agricultural Price Floors

Amanda Claire StarbuckEconomic Justice, Environmental Resilience

A hallmark of New Deal era agricultural programs, price floors were eliminated along with other supply management tools over the second half of the 20th century. Absence of price floors drives down farm income and encourages overproduction – a vicious cycle with numerous externalities, from environmental degradation and agricultural intensification to supplying factory farms with cheap feed. Reinstating price floors is an essential step in restoring farm income and addressing these externalities.