The changes in the food economy due to agricultural monopolies
The idyllic farm that we have learned about in our childhood is gone. The images of red barns and livestock in the field are firmly committed to history. Now, the farms of the past have been replaced by industrialized growing operations that emphasize quantity over quality. As a result, the small farms of the past could no longer compete. In fact, the majority of money spent on food by the farmers and the consumers goes to places other than the region it is being grown in. This, in turn, causes a movement of money out of the local economy. This, caused by monopolies, have had very negative impacts throughout America’s regions in the economic way. On top of this, because of food’s
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Because of the farmer and consumers buying these crops, money is spent from the consumer’s region and given to the agricultural monopolies and, in turn, into the base region of those monopolies. Ken Meter, the president of Minneapolis-based Crossroads Research Center, a trusted and bias-free research center that has a lot of experience in accurately describing trends, found out that the farmers “spent $500 million on farming inputs. Moreover, the region's consumers spent an additional $500 million on food purchased from elsewhere. All of the money--and then some--that the region earned from farming was drained right back out of the community by the food system itself.” (DeWeerdt). This movement of money, described by Deweerdt, causes a deportation of money from the region the food is sold in as well as the risk of inflation in the region they are bringing the money into. This can be further explained, because agricultural monopolies focused in one area bring revenue into only their base region. Therefore, there is an irregular increase of money in this base region, which is the primary reason behind inflation. On top of this, the other region is losing money, harming their local economy. These are negative impacts caused by agricultural …show more content…
Food has changed and will continue to change throughout time. It first started as “hunting and gathering with weapons, but then turned into the use of plows in settled agriculture” into pesticides and now into genetically modified foods (Wood). These changes, described by Wood, an informational writer backed by research from many scientists and trusted by many classes of AP Human Geography, mean that food is ever-changing. Therefore, those products, which are tied to the current state of food, are at risk of becoming useless, just like the economies that are tied to those products. Agricultural monopolies try to implement the newest type of food product, GMOs. Because of their control over most local farms,throughout America, those farms, use only the cheaper Gmos and cause previous economies they used to be ruined. This is due to the farms not needing the products that the local economies offer and depend on. Therefore, these economies lose revenue and money because the agricultural monopolies cause farms to change the products they use in turn hurting this local
In order to right the ship that is America’s food industry, we need to recognize the monopolies in the U.S food industry. These massive food conglomerates must be broken up in order to create competition in the market. This will allow the completion to dictate the market. More companies means more competition, and when companies compete, the consumer wins.
Mrs. Richards makes mention about the American farmer and the struggles they are facing at the present time. Mrs. Richards mentions that the farmers would be blamed for rising food cost if they asked to increase their profit margins. Mrs. Richards goes on to mention that we as a nation are buying more food from foreign countries instead of supporting the farmers right here in the United States of America, and how this is causing
What’s the difference between a Walmart and a farmers’ market? What causes these differences? And, what are we more partial to? Tracie McMillan delves into the intricacies and complications of our nation’s food industry in The American Way of Eating. Specifically, as McMillan integrates herself into the farming and grocer/selling aspect of the industry, it is evident the food system has been extremely successful in offering ‘abundance, accessibility, and affordability’ to its consumers.
A counter argument to the conclusion that we should not trust nor buy from our food industries could be the obvious reason that food is cheaper than ever before. When times are hard in America, we can always count on the cheap price of our fast food restaurants and their dollar menus. However, these cheap prices come at a high cost. The reason meat or grains, for example, are so cheap, is due to subsidizing the market. While this may be great for consumers, it is actually incredibly harmful to local farmers. Artificially driving down the prices
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
More and more farm-to-table restaurants, farmer’s markets, and food co-ops are cropping up to meet the demand among consumers for healthy, local foods, as more chefs and consumers recognize the poorer taste and nutritional integrity of ingredients shipped in from far away. Fruits and vegetables that have to be shipped long distances are often picked before they have a chance to fully ripen and absorb nutrients from their surroundings. Because local food doesn’t have to travel long distances, it is grown in order to taste better and be healthier rather than to be resilient to long travel. The farm-to-table movement also helps local economies by supporting small farmers, which is a dying
Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.
Fast food has changed farming, ranching, and meatpacking to an extent where it is nearly impossible to recover due to the amount of meat that is being consumed in the United States and the amount of meat that are required to prepare those products in America and other foreign countries. The author of Fast Food Nation stated, “Ranchers currently face a host of economic problems: rising land prices, stagnant beef prices, oversupplies of cattle, increased shipments of live cattle from Canada and Mexi...
...o. “The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequence of the Twentieth Century US Farming”. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 103-124.
These three companies have all but either acquired or eliminated their smaller competitors. The giants compete for the leading fast food chain’s contracts, in turn only benefitting the restaurants and increasing their profits (Schlosser 116). The potato industry has become an, “oligopsony- a market in which a small number of buyers exerts power over a large number of sellers,” (Schlosser 117). The potato farmers of Idaho face as Schlosser recounts, “pressure to either get bigger- or get out if the business,” (Schlosser 117). “Over the past twenty-five years, Idaho has lost about half of its potato farmers.
To really begin to understand this complex topic a person really needs to understand the basics of agricultural subsidizing. A subsidy is defined as a grant by a government to a private person or company to assist an enterprise deemed advantageous to the public (Mish, 2003). More specifically, in the agricultural industry the government provides financial assistance to producers in the farm industry in order to prevent decline in production. The government does this by providing financial assistance to farmers and by managing the cost and supply of certain commodities. There a few reasons for this. One reason is to provide assistance to family sized farm owners who have trouble competing with commercial farms. This is supposed to maintain an efficient market balance. Another reason is to control the prices of commodities and keep the global food prices low. There are two main ways that payments are made. The payments may be made directly based on historical cropping patterns on a fixed number of acres. Or they can also be made depending on current market prices. Farmer’s may be guaranteed...
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
Monsanto is one of the biggest companies behind genetic food engineering and for years have been able to sell their crops to farmers of all kinds around the world. Today they have over twenty products, which can be bought from their website anywhere from Roundup Ready to genetically modified corn and soybeans. They claim to “help farmers grow a sustainable crop so they can be successful, produce healthier foods, increase the fiber in animal feeds, while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment”. Their home page is brightly colored, depicts happy farmers and promises to end world hunger. It tells the government and public what they want to hear not what they need to hear.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...