Federal Trade Commission Chair (FTC) Lina Khan participated in a 90-minute listening session about concerns relating to the Koch Industries’ acquisition of the Iowa Fertilizer Company in Nevada, Iowa, on Saturday.
“It feels like no matter how hard you work, no matter how much consumers and customers actually like your products, your success in the marketplace is not a function of how well you’re able to compete, instead [it’s] a function of a handful of giants who are choosing how to exercise their power,” Khan said in her opening remarks.
The session was hosted by the Iowa Farmers Union (IFU), National Farmers Union (NFU) and State Innovation Exchange. In addition to Khan, the panel included NFU President Rob Larew, IFU President Aaron Lehman and State Reps. Megan Srinivas (D-Des Moines), J.D. Scholten (D-Sioux City) and Elinor Levin (D-Iowa City).
Larew, in his opening remarks, cited a 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden, titled “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” and said it was proof he was serious about the issue.
“[Biden] reminded folks that capitalism without competition is exploitation, and with that, we also knew how serious he was when he put in place the team he has – all across government – to take on this issue head-on,” Larew said.
One attendee, John Gilbert, said he worked on a farm with his family and was concerned about imbalances in the authority of agricultural companies and rising cancer rates in Iowa.
“Farmers like to say ‘We feed the world,’ bullshit, farmers don’t even feed themselves,” Gilbert said.
Scott Henry, the owner of Longview Farms in Nevada, said he believed all farmers would support “holding bad actors accountable,” but called the Koch Industries’ acquisition an “interesting issue.”
“We have an Egyptian nonprofit and here we are again with a domestic-owned company looking to buy it,” Henry said. “I do think that from a foreign interest point there’s some wrinkles here that we should just be careful because I do want to continue to support American companies regardless of what I may believe or not believe about their political beliefs or practices.”
The Iowa Fertilizer Company is currently owned by OCI Global, headquartered in the Netherlands, with production facilities in the U.S., Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Algeria.
Harold Beach, a board member of the Northeast Missouri Cooperative Services Inc., told the panel that titles, including his own, “mean nothing” if the people with those titles do not stand behind their decisions.
“You’re the referee in the ballgame,” Beach said. “We need that. That’s my definition of government, is [to be] the referee of the ballgame. Let the ballgame continue, don’t determine the outcome but call balls and strikes.”
Several other Iowa Democrats were in attendance including former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart and Sen. Herman Quirmbach (D-Ames).
In an interview with the Daily, Quirmbach said he was an FTC intern 40 years ago and that it was “gratifying” that a federal official came to Nevada to listen to “actual citizens and the struggles they have had.”
“If you have a competitive industry, the prices if there’s active competition, the price will reflect the cost of production. All right, but if you have a concentrated industry and like the kind of thing they were talking about, the price of the fertilizer is reflecting the profits that can be made by using that fertilizer,” Quirmbach said.
When asked during media availability about the lack of Republican lawmakers in attendance, Khan told the Daily that antitrust and antimonopoly have “always been deeply bipartisan.”
“The lawsuits we have filed both on mergers as well on some of these monopolistic practices routinely attract support from a bipartisan coalition of state [attorneys general] and so we’re always happy to work with anybody who shares concerns about this,” Khan said.
