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Consolidation: Seeds
Just four corporations sell 76% of all soybean, 85% of all corn, and 91% of all cotton seeds in the U.S. And one corporation owns patented genetic traits found in 80% of U.S. corn and over 90% of U.S. soybeans.
Consolidation: Meatpacking
The four largest corporations process 54% of all chicken, 67% of all pork, and 73% of all beef. Powerful packers drive out small farms: Since 1980, 40% of beef cattle operations and 90% of hog farmers have gone out of business.
Consolidation: Retailers
In one decade, Walmart went from selling no groceries to the largest U.S. food retailer. Today, 1 in 4 dollars spent on groceries goes to Walmart. Other grocery chains have merged in order to compete. Just between 1996 and 1999 there were 385 mergers in the grocery industry.
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Recommended Reading
General
Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food, Frederick Kaufman, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012.
Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Farming in America, Wenonah Hauter, The New Press, 2012.
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Raj Patel, Melville House, 2008.
Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, Monica M. White, 2019
Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?, Phil Howard, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, Tom Philpott, 2020.
Too Big To Feed, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, October 2017
Infographics on consolidation in the food system, Phil Howard, Michigan State University.
The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies, Food & Water Watch, November 2012.
Who Will Control the Green Economy? ETC Group, November 2011.
Animal Agriculture
The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, Christopher Leonard, Simon & Schuster, 2014.
The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of our Food, Ted Genoways, Harper, 2014.
Beyond Big Meat, The New Republic, Ted Genoways, August, 2020
Factory Farm Nation: 2020 Edition, Food & Water Watch, April 12, 2020
How a Top Chicken Company Cut Off Black Farmers, One by One, ProPublica, Isaac Arnsdorf, June 26, 2019
How China Purchased a Prime Cut of America’s Pork Industry, Reveal News, Nathan Halverson, January 27, 2014.
The Supreme Court Has Undermined Iowa’s Small Farms and Communities, Patty Judge and Aaron Belkin, Take Back the Court, January 2020
The Ban on Packer Ownership and Feeding of Livestock: Legal and Economic Implications, John Connor, Peter C. Carstensen, Roger A. McEowen, and Neil E. Harl, Iowa State University, 2002.
Obama’s Game of Chicken, Lina Khan, The Washington Monthly, November/December 2012
Antimonopoly
Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction, Barry C. Lynn, 2010.
Liberty From All Masters: The New American Autocracy vs. The Will of the People, Barry C. Lynn, 2020.
Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money, Zephyr Teachout, 2020
Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, David Dayen, 2020
Monopolies Suck: 7 Ways Big Corporations Rule Your Life and How to Take Back Control, Sally Hubbard, 2020
Retailers
Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, Stacy Mitchell, Beacon Press, 2007.
Walmart’s Monopolization of Local Grocery Markets, Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, June 2019
Grocery Goliaths: How Food Monopolies Impact Consumers, Food & Water Watch, December 2013.
Walmart at the Crossroads: The Environmental and Labor Impact of Its Food Supply Chain, Food Chain Workers Alliance, June 4 2015.
Dollar Stores are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community is Showing How to Fight Back, Stacy Mitchell and Marie Donahue, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, December 2018
Seeds
First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology, Jack Kloppenburg, University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
Joint Letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on the proposed merger of Bayer and Monsanto, American Antitrust Institute, Food & Water Watch, National Farmers Union, July 26, 2017
An Updated Antitrust Review of the Bayer-Monsanto Merger, Maurice E. Stucke and Allen P. Grunes, Konkurrenz Group, March 6, 2018
Putting the Cartel Before the Horse…and Farm, Seeds, Soil, Peasants, etc., ETC Group, September 2013.
Monsanto’s Seed Company Subsidiaries, Food & Water Watch, June 2014.
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Vanity Fair, May 2008.
Monsanto’s Scary New Scheme: Why Does it Really Want All This Data? Lina Khan, Salon, December 29, 2013.
Blocking the Chain: Industrial Food Chain Concentration, Big Data Platforms and Food Sovereignty Solutions, Pat Mooney, ETC Group, October 15, 2018
Organics & Beer
Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California, Julie Guthman, University of California Press, 2004.
Corporate Cooptation of Organic and Fair Trade Standards, Phil Howard and Daniel Jaffee, The Journal of Agriculture and Human Values, 2009.
A King of Beers? A Report by the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative, New America Foundation, December 2012.
Global Beer: The Road to Monopoly, Bernard Ascher, The American Antitrust Institute, 2012.
Labor
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011.
The Hands that Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain, Food Chain Workers Alliance, June 6, 2012.
No Piece of the Pie: U.S. Food Workers in 2016, Food Chain Workers Alliance and Solidarity Research Cooperative, November 2016
Meatpacking Companies Dismissed Years of Warnings but Now Say Nobody Could Have Prepared for COVID-19, ProPublica, Michael Grabell and Bernice Yeung, August 20, 2020
Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants, Human Rights Watch, 2004.
The Chain Never Stops, Eric Schlosser, Mother Jones, July/August 2001.
Recommended Resources
Food and Environment Reporting Network
FERN’s Ag Insider Newsletter (by Chuck Abbott)
Politico’s Morning Agriculture
Tom Philpott’s Blog at Mother Jones
