Henry: Expand the national security concerns to include these foreign influences

Riddleton, TN – TN District 6 Congressional Candidate, Sgt. Maj. Jon Henry (ret) applauds the continued focus of the Trump Administration upon the very real National Security issues related to America’s Agriculture.  Tennessee was honored with a visit from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, as well as Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden at the TN State Fair in Wilson County, TN.  The event afforded Farmers the opportunity to voice their concerns, to the Secretary with excellent representation from producers within the 6th  Congressional District, many of whom are friends and contributors to the platform our campaign stands upon. 

The exciting news of decoupling from foreign ownership of our farmland, and control of its uses, must also address foreign manipulation of markets that allow American Farmers to remain upon the land.  Not only are Farmers concerned about extreme market consolidations; they are also concerned those few entities affecting their business are either foreign owned or heavily influenced by foreign investment.  While vertical integration may champion “efficiency” in the marketplace, that efficiency is heavily  advantaged toward the processor corporations, and leaves  little consideration to the economic factors that transfer to the producers/growers.  These forces are disadvantaging farmers at the basest level of profitability, challenging the safety of farm products to consumers, and placing our National Security at risk all along the chain of supply. 

It was the innovation of American Farmers that made our Agriculture great with confident access, to a free market system of price discovery that drove the advances made.  Ongoing litigation, in re Cattle Antitrust Litigation 19-cv-01222, revealed that ONLY 25% of fed-cattle move through an open pricing system, with the balance of pricing held within the hands of only four corporations (JBS, National, Tyson, & Cargill).  Swine and poultry open market access and price discovery being even less than currently experienced by beef farmers, and predominantly controlled  by the same corporations.  JBS & National (Marfrig.) are Brazilian firms having immense global footprints, along with Tyson, being subject to large foreign investments, and Cargill remaining the only family owned American business in the cabal capturing over 85% of the meat sector of our economy. 

I call on Secretary Rollins to expand the national security concerns to include these foreign influences into our market structure, as well as the internal concentrations of market power that impact American Agriculture.  I stand ready to serve alongside current, and long overdue examinations of our food system, to increase the viability of our Agriculture sector and to provide a secure product to consumers. 

Let’s Make American Farmers Great Again!  #MAFGA   www.henryforcongress.com