As big retailers exploit their financial control over suppliers, independent grocers face extinction, creating food deserts and driving up prices for everyone. In the New York Times, Stacy Mitchell calls to resurrect the Robinson-Patman Act and restore fair competition in the warped landscape of the American food system.… Read More
Jasmine Harris, a Louisville Tenant Organizer, turned to activism after her roof started caving in to ensure that every resident in Louisville has safe and affordable housing. Tara Raghuveer, Executive Director of Kansas City Tenants, discusses how private equity firms exploit the housing market and government reforms to protect tenants’ rights.… Read More
In this episode of Building Local Power, three community composters detail how the biggest challenge in developing their program is funding. Jessica Toth joins the second half of the episode to outline how the very people implementing solutions to lessen our carbon footprint — while providing jobs and education in a circular food system — are underfunded.… Read More
Twenty-five years ago, there were over 2,000 commercial shrimp boats in Mississippi. Today, that number has fallen to around 200. This trend is not unique to Mississippi: Across U.S. coastlines, commercial fisherfolk are seeing their way of life disappear.… Read More
Our tax system used to serve as a check on corporate power. Now it fuels market concentration and undermines the ability of small businesses to compete, Susan Holmberg and Niko Lusiani explain in ProMarket. … Read More
The rapid consolidation of agriculture across the U.S. has obliterated many small and mid-size farms and has posed monumental challenges for small farmers and consumers alike. On this episode, an onion farmer tells his story of how small and mid-size farmers across the country are going extinct. Sarah Carden weaves his story with the necessary policy decisions to build a more equitable farming system. … Read More
Aaron Johnson, founder and owner of Oasis Fresh Market in North Tulsa, Oklahoma, tells his journey of opening a grocery store to provide a refuge, safe place, and shelter to a community that had been a food desert for fourteen years. On the second half of the episode, Stacy Mitchell explains the policy decisions that have led to an increasingly consolidated grocery sector and the steps to take to support locally-owned, community-centric grocery models. … Read More
On the local NPR affiliate, Stacy explains how dollar stores prey on communities. … Read More
Ron Knox writes in Competition Policy International that in order to foster a more democratic economy we must strengthen merger guidelines and enforce anti-merger laws, promote anti-merger enforcement in Congress, and educate federal judges about the intent behind anti-merger laws.… Read More
