Farm groups call on US to bust up big ag

A coalition of family farmers, consumers and other critics of corporate agriculture on Thursday called on the U.S. government to crack down on what they see as unfair consolidation of the nation's food system into the hands of a few multinationals. Chanting "bust up big ag," a group of more than 250 packed a town hall meeting in the top corn-growing state of Iowa to rally support ahead of a Justice Department meeting on Friday aimed at scrutinizing concentration in the seed business. The Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are holding a meeting Friday in Ankeny to look at the "competitive dynamics in the seed industry." U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Christine Varney, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for antitrust, are slated to attend. The meeting in Ankeny is the first ever of its kind and is slated as the first in a series of five such gatherings planned by federal officials to gather input on concentration in the poultry, dairy and livestock industries.