T. PAUL - Ralph Nader yesterday proposed shifting control of US agriculture away from corporate conglomerates and back toward the family farmer.
''By weakening the stranglehold agribusiness has on the food industry, we will be able to increase farm gate prices and competition, which will consequently reduce food costs for consumers,'' he said.
The Green Party candidate commented before what he was billing as a ''super rally'' at the Target Center in Minneapolis, an event he hoped would raise money and build support for his inclusion in presidential debates.
His farm plan, among other things, calls for stronger enforcement of antitrust laws, prohibition of meatpacker ownership of livestock-production facilities, and allowing American farmers to grow industrial hemp.
Next to him on a table during a news conference sat a pile of 18,000 signatures of Minnesotans requesting that Nader be included in the debates.
