Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 12/16/19

The New Jersey senator's new legislation would ban new industrial-scale livestock farms , known as CAFOs, and require existing ones to close by January 2040. The bill also aims to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, which is intended to keep meat and poultry markets competitive, although the federal offices enforcing that law have been criticized for being too lax while the market consolidated into the so-called Big Four (Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef).

The new bill uses the EPA's definition of a large concentrated animal feeding operation, which includes farms with at least 700 dairy cows, 2,500 hogs, 1,000 cattle and 30,000 broiler chickens. Up to $100 billion over a decade would be set aside for voluntary buyouts to owners who want to transition to other types of agriculture, or to help pay off any outstanding debt.

An end to large CAFOs is controversial, and a long shot, but bolstering antitrust enforcement will appeal to an increasingly vocal number of cattle ranchers calling for a system reboot. A Twitter campaign, launched in September under #faircattlemarkets , has garnered thousands of tweets about how they're struggling to break even while large meatpackers are hauling in profits. These producers also want mandatory country-of-origin labeling to be reinstated for beef — something Booker's bill would do.

Booker, who is vegan, said he's not interested in telling Americans what to eat. The senator has routinely proposed sweeping changes to the U.S. food system and made the ideas a key part of his 2020 platform.

His other plans include blocking mergers and acquisitions in the food and agriculture industry and pouring $100 billion into USDA conservation programs that pay farmers to adopt climate-friendly practices. A lot of 2020 Democrats have similar proposals.