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[PIANO MUSIC]

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AMANDA TERKEL: OK, Senator.

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So I wanted to ask you a
little bit about agribusiness.

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And corporate consolidation,
vertical integration,

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are something that's a concern
to a lot of family farmers

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out here.

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In the poultry industry,
the top three companies

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own 90% of the market.

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Walmart has built a huge milk
processing facility in Indiana.

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What do you propose
to do about this?

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BERNIE SANDERS:
Whether it's dairy--

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I come from a dairy state--
increasing concentration

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is true in pork.

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It's true in beef.

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It's true in chicken.

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It's true in soybeans.

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And the answer is, you
gotta break them up.

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Look, we have not enforced
antitrust legislation

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for a very, very long time.

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So in almost every sector
of American society--

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agriculture, Wall
Street, et cetera--

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you're seeing fewer and
fewer large corporations

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dominate the sector.

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That means higher
prices, less competition.

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And it hurts consumers, and
it hurts the real people

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who do the work--

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in this case, farmers.

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So the answer is vigorous
antitrust legislation.

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Break them up.
AMANDA TERKEL: And how--

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I mean, it seems like
you're going to get a lot

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of industry pushback on this.

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How would-- how would
you go about doing it?

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BERNIE SANDERS: Look, amid
everything that I am proposing,

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whether it's breaking up the
large banks on Wall Street

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or moving to a "Medicare for
all," single-payer system

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or lowering prescription
drug costs in this country,

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we're taking on every
powerful special interest.

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So why should I not be shocked
that we're going to take

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on agribusiness as well?

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I come from a state where
agriculture is very important.

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It's mostly dairy,
but we have a number

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of vegetable farmers as well.

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And what I have seen in
the state of Vermont,

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tragically-- really sad--

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the decline of that industry.

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Literally every
week, another farmer

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is going out of business.

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Today, farmers cannot--
in most cases, family

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farmers cannot make money.

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I happen to believe in
family-based agriculture.

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I happen to believe
in rural America.

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And we have got to be
vigorous in protecting

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those-- those concerns.

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AMANDA TERKEL: How much does
foreign ownership in the

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agriculture sector bother you?

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BERNIE SANDERS: It
bothers me a whole lot,

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and I'll tell you
why it bothers me.

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Above and beyond the
issue of consolidation,

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I worry about national
security issues.

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All right?

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You know, we don't
survive if we don't eat.

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And I do not want
our agricultural land

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to be in the control
of people who may not

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have the best interests of
the United States of America

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at heart.

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AMANDA TERKEL: So what
would you do about that?

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BERNIE SANDERS: Well,
we could eliminate it.

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You know, again, I come from
a very, very rural state.

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And that means we have to
rebuild rural America, which

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is now in very serious decline.

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You know, life is
not just Seattle

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and New York City and Chicago.

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I've talked to so many people
who grew up in rural America,

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who grew up on farms.

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It is a good life, and
we have to rebuild that.

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AMANDA TERKEL: And
so do you think

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there should be a moratorium
on agriculture mergers?

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BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah.

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I mean, I think we've not only
got to have that moratorium.

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We have to go further.

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Now, we have to start
breaking them up.

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I want to see young people
today who, in many cases,

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do not want to work on their
parents' farm for good reasons.

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Their parents have
gone bankrupt.

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Their parents are
not making any money.

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They're working
seven days a week.

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With modern technology, I think
we can establish a good life

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for people growing food.

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And I think, as we talk about
health needs in America,

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nutritious food
is very important,

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and I want to see
our farmers do that.

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I know a lot of-- in Vermont
and elsewhere-- people

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who are moving toward
organic farming.

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I think that is a good thing.

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AMANDA TERKEL: How do
you lower the barriers?

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There are young people who
wanted to get into agriculture

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and into farming, but they felt
like-- they had student loans,

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and other things
were just preventing

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them from getting in.

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What would you do?

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BERNIE SANDERS: I mean, but all
of what you're talking about

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is showing that one thing
relates to everything else.

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And right now we
have an economy that

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works very, very well
for the billionaire class

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and for the top 1%.

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49% of all new income
goes to the top 1%.

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Three people today are more
wealthy than about a half

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of the American society.

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And if elected president,
obviously, my focus

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is going to be on rebuilding
the middle class of this country

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and protecting the
needs of working

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families who have
been just decimated

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for the last 40 years.

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How do you go into farming if
you're paying off, you know,

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a $100,000 student loan?

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So that is why I believe
we're going to make public--

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we must make public colleges
and universities tuition-free

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and today substantially
reduce student debt.

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If we can bail out Wall
Street, if we give tax breaks

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to billionaires, you
can substantially

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lower student debt,
and you can encourage

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through a number
of other incentives

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young people to go into farming.

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