Family farms and environmental advocates worry that Riverview LLP’s enormous dairy operations will strain water resources, pollute local air and water, and drive out smaller farms, hurting rural communities.

Antitrust enforcers blocked Kroger’s takeover of Albertsons, but they’ve struggled to hold the grocers accountable for an alleged no-hire agreement. An unfavorable federal court decision risks undermining worker power in union contract negotiations.

If Mamdani’s grocery experiment can survive the pilot stage, it’d benefit from more scale, public wholesale investments, and wraparound antitrust enforcement, helping public grocers and small private stores alike.