Bernie Sanders Is Planting the Seeds for Rural America to Thrive

During an appearance in Osage, Iowa, on Sunday, would-be Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders introduced packages that would help protect rural farmers by guaranteeing them livable wages in addition to covering the costs of production.

Sanders said of the “radical policy change” that would break up agriculture monopolies and restructure USDA programs to strengthen regulations of organics, “This growing monopolization of agriculture is unfair to food producers. It is unfair to consumers. It is unfair to the environment. Together, we are going to change that system.”

The senator from rural Vermont compared the family farmers being milked by the agribusiness conglomerates as “modern-day indentured servants,” and expressed his desire for supply/demand management programs to protect them.

Sanders plan would also provide farmers with the resources—including land acquisition, equipment, seed patents and the “right to repair” their own equipment—to allow them to practice sustainable farming away from the pressures of “companies like Monsanto.”