Get Big or Get Out, a Redux

By BRIAN DEPEW

Executive Director

Center for Rural Affairs

Asked about the plight of dairy farmers in Wisconsin, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said, “[The] big get bigger and small go out and that’s kind of what we’ve seen here ...”

The Center for Rural Affairs was founded on a different belief. We believe consolidation in agriculture is not inevitable. Instead, we understand it is the direct result of policy decisions we have made together as a nation. We can choose to make different decisions. Consider:

We can choose to place a cap on crop insurance subsidies. Right now, if one...