Sen. Bernie Sanders, a top-tier candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, proposed a broad overhaul of policies affecting small-town family farmers and the agriculture industry that would include a moratorium on new agribusiness mergers.
Speaking to supporters in tiny Osage, Iowa — a farming community with about 4,000 residents — Sanders also promised to steer more farm subsidies away from bigger companies and to strengthen antitrust laws governing the industry.
"In rural America, we are seeing giant agribusiness conglomerates extract as much wealth out of small communities as they possibly can, while family farmers are going bankrupt and in many ways are being treated like modern-day indentured servants," Sanders said at an event that is part of a days-long sweep through the state.