[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 140 (Friday, October 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12697-S12698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Daschle, Mr. 
        Feingold, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Leahy):
  S. 1739. A bill to impose a moratorium on large agribusiness mergers 
and to establish a commission to review large agriculture mergers, 
concentration, and market power; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


    agribusiness merger moratorium and antitrust review act of 1999

 Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, over the past several years there 
has been a wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions in this country 
that is of historic proportions. Last year the dollar value of 
announced corporate combinations in the United States was more than 
$1.6 trillion. This exceeded the amount of all the mergers in the world 
the year before.
  The big are getting bigger, the small are getting trampled, and this 
has large implications for the kind of economy we are going to have 
and--more importantly--for the kind of nation we are going to be.
  This is apparent in rural America, where the elephants have been 
stomping with a special gusto. Control of the nation's food chain--from 
production and processing to packing and distribution--has been falling 
into fewer and fewer hands. Over a decade ago, the four biggest grain 
processing companies in the U.S. accounted for some 40 percent of the 
nation's flour milling. Today the figure is 62 percent. About three 
quarters of the wet corn milling and soybean crushing are controlled by

[[Page S12698]]

the four biggest firms--and about 80 percent of the beef.
  This extraordinary concentration of economic power has large 
implications. It is draining the economic life out of rural America. In 
1952 farmers received close to half of every retail food dollar. Today 
they get less than a quarter of that same dollar. From a pound loaf of 
white bread that costs 87 cents at the store, the wheat farmer gets 
less than 4 cents. Farmers are working harder than ever; but the reward 
for their toil is going to the corporate conglomerates, which offer 
farmers fewer options for marketing their products than at probably any 
time in this century.
  While these corporations are showing record profits, farmers are 
forced to sell commodities such as wheat and pork, at Depression era 
prices. Thousands of farmers have gone under, and thousands more are 
barely hanging on. Farm auctions have become a grim feature of the 
rural landscape today, as has suicide. ``Everything is gone, wore out 
or shot, just like me,'' one Iowa farmer said in his suicide note.
  When farmers go, our rural communities go. We lose the stable social 
structures, the generations of family ties, the investment in schools 
and churches, libraries and clinics. Independent business people, from 
implement dealers to insurance salesmen, go belly up. And what do we 
get for this human tragedy and social loss? The low prices on the farm 
have not shown up in corresponding decreases at the supermarket. The 
processors and packers are getting the money instead.
  That's not the only source of the hardship in rural America. But it's 
a large one. The growing concentration of the nation's food chain into 
fewer corporate hands is something this Congress must address.
  The Clinton Administration deserves credit for reviving antitrust 
enforcement from the dormancy of the previous administrations. But it 
is laboring under reduced budgets and a body of law that, as 
interpreted by court decisions, may not be up to the task. When the two 
giants of the grain trade, Continental Grain and Cargill, are permitted 
to merge, then one has to wonder if the hole in the screen has become 
so big that there's no screen left.
  That's why I'm joining with Senator Wellstone in introducing 
legislation to impose a moratorium on large corporate mergers in the 
agriculture sector. The legislation would also create an independent 
commission to advise how to change the underlying antitrust laws and 
other federal laws and regulations to ensure a competitive agricultural 
marketplace and to protect family farmers and other family-sized 
producers.
  A moratorium on large corporate agriculture mergers is needed to give 
Congress time to consider these important questions and craft a 
suitable response. If we wait it could be too late. We won't be able to 
advance the fortunes of family-based agriculture because there won't be 
much left.
  Specifically, our bill imposes an 18-month moratorium on those large 
corporate mergers in the agriculture industry that would generally be 
required to make a ``Hart-Scott-Rodino" pre-merger filing with the 
Department of Justice. Such filings are triggered by a three-part test, 
one of which is that either of the two firms proposed for merger or 
acquisition have $100 million or more in net annual sales or assets. 
The Attorney General is granted authority to waive the application of 
the moratorium in ``extraordinary circumstances'' such as a merging 
firm's facing insolvency or similar financial distress.
  The legislation also establishes a 12-member commission to study the 
nature and consequences of mergers and concentration in America's 
agricultural economy. The Commission members are appointed by the 
leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives after consultation 
with the Chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate 
Agriculture Committees. After completing its study, the Commission will 
submit to the President and Congress a final report that includes its 
findings on consolidation in agriculture and recommendations about how 
our antitrust laws and other federal regulations should be changed to 
protect family-based agriculture, the communities they comprise, and 
the food shoppers of the nation.
  The family farmers of this nation are facing what could be the end 
game. The distortions and abuses in the agriculture marketplace have 
contributed to the loss of thousands of family farmers, and the grim 
foreboding that hangs over much of rural America.
  This does not have to be. No harm will come from this moratorium. 
Agribusiness enterprises will continue to see record profits, if the 
market so permits. Farmers and food shoppers will not lose because the 
record is clear that concentration in the food sector does not benefit 
them. Ironically, this merger mania means less freedom and less 
choice--in a nation that is supposed to stand for them.
  I urge my colleagues to support this moratorium, and antitrust review 
commission, and cast a vote for family-based agriculture and the health 
of rural America.
                                 ______