Summary
- J.D. Scholten wants to break food supply monopolies.
- Says few companies control over 40% market share.
- Calls for federal support of small and medium farmers.
- Criticizes current farm policies favoring large agribusinesses.
- Advocates reforms to help Iowa’s agricultural sector thrive.
According to Scholten, just approximately 14% of every dollar that Americans spend on food goes to farmers, and 90% of Iowa hog farms have closed in the last 40 years. Additionally, Scholten is advocating for increased federal funding for locally produced food and on-farm conservation measures.
“They say if…just a few companies control 40% of the market share, that’s considered a monopoly,”
Scholten said late this morning.
“Well, we’re far beyond that. We are living in the second ‘Gilded Age.'”
Scholten said.
“…We haven’t had a real Farm Bill since 2018 and they just continue to kick the can down the road and the status quo isn’t working for most Iowa farmers.”
Today, Scholten published a comprehensive agriculture policy platform while touring a farm in central Iowa. The system needs to be changed, he added, citing statistics that show 70% of USDA commodity payments go to 10% of the wealthiest farm companies. Scholten is likewise dubious of farm check-off schemes that demand that farmers contribute a percentage of their commodity sales proceeds.
Scholten said the federal government should have never allowed pork producer Smithfield to be purchased by a Chinese company or allowed Brazil-based JBS to buy Swift and other meatpacking companies. He’s also calling for rejection of Union Pacific’s acquisition of the Norfolk Southern railroad and changes that would make it easier for farmers to get a commercial trucking license.
“There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to all of this,”
Scholten told reporters.
“If there was, I think it’d be done already.”
Scholten expressed his frustration that the Obama Administration did not take greater action to combat agricultural monopolies. Additionally, he takes issue with the first Trump Admiration's choice to place the nation's top anti-monopoly enforcers in the organization they are meant to oversee.
Scholten is one of several Democrats running for the U.S. Senate seat that is now occupied by Republican Joni Ernst. In 2026, her term will end.
How does Scholten plan to dismantle food supply monopolies to support small farmers?
Scholten emphasizes stronger enforcement of existing antitrust laws to break up the dominant agribusiness companies that control meatpacking, seed, and fertilizer markets. He believes breaking these monopolies is the first crucial step to creating a fairer playing field for small and medium farmers.
He advocates building local and regional food systems by investing in infrastructure that enables markets closer to home—for example, farm-to-school, farm-to-hospital, and farm-to-military food supply chains.
This would create more stable and localized demand for small farmers.