Agribusiness & Concentration of Production

Control of food production has become increasingly consolidated in the hands of a few powerful, politically connected, multinational corporations. Corporations that own factory farms often control the entire process of production – from raising the animals to slaughtering, processing, and distributing the final products. Unfortunately, these conditions make it easier for factory farm corporations to squeeze traditional family farms out of business. Meanwhile, as a result of their tremendous political power, industrial food producers are able to prevent the creation and enforcement of regulations capable of protecting human health and the environment from the damages caused by factory farms.

Featured

Economic Concentration and Structural Change in the Food and Agriculture Sector: Trends, Consequences and Policy Options

Paper prepared by the Democratic Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry exploring the boundary between economic efficiency and undue market influence resulting from corporate consolidation and concentration. This is a good explanation of the problems associated with vertical integration in agriculture. (October 2004.)

The Influence of the Big Three- ADM, Cargill and ConAgra

For over a century, farmers have felt that suppliers of certain inputs needed by farmers, such as bankers and farm equipment manufactures, received a disproportionate share of the profits from food production. This study explores the involuntary exiting of farm families from production agriculture and the uneven distribution of the food dollar. Chart 1 (Printable) Chart 2 (Printable) Chart 3 (Printable) (Dr. William Heffernan, June 1999.)

The RapSheet on Animal Factories

The Sierra Club’s comprehensive guide to convictions, fines, pollution violations, and regulatory records on animal factories. You can search by state or operator and find out which corporations have violated what regulations. (Sierra Club, August 2002.)

General Resources

Agribusiness Accountability Project

Cosponsored by the Center of Concern and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the Agribusiness Accountability Initiative is a growing international network of academics, activists, and food system experts who recognize that corporate concentration and vertical integration among transnational agro-food companies threaten the sustainability of the most important industry on earth – the global food system.

Agribusiness Center

An extensive online database that tracks, monitors, and reports the activities of the world’s largest agribusiness corporations. Search by company and topic, and receive information on recent headline news, a document repository, and links to other resources on corporate agribusiness activity. (Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy.)

Concentration of Agricultural Markets – NFU Heffernan Research Reports

Commissioned by the National Farmers Union, these reports list the top corporate food producers for each year of publication.

Corporate Agribusiness Research Project

The Corporate Agribusiness Research Project (CARP) was established to monitor corporate agribusiness from a public interest perspective through awareness, education, and action while at the same time advocating the importance of building alternative, democratically controlled food systems. They release a weekly email newsletter, The AgriBusiness Examiner.

Food Circles Networking Project

A good source of information on consolidation in the food industry and the size of vertically integrated agricultural organizations.

Organic Does Not Necessarily Mean Family Farmed

Many large agribusiness corporations have responded to the popularity of organic foods. This chart shows which corporations own which popular organic brands.

Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM)

Multidisciplinary, nonprofit group of farmers, ranchers, academics, attorneys, and policymakers dedicated to reclaiming the agricultural marketplace for independent farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.

Transnationale.org

An online directory of which corporations own which product brands, and what economic, environmental, and human rights problems those corporations have created.

Agribuisiness Companies

The following agricultural companies raise, process, and/or sell factory farmed meat.

Archer Daniels Midland Company

A global, grain-oriented company whose products include food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial, and animal feed markets.

Contigroup Companies, Inc. (formerly Continental Grain Company)

World’s largest cattle feeder, the third-largest fully integrated hog producer in the US, the sixth largest integrated poultry company in the US, and an important player in animal feed and nutrition.

Hormel Inc.

A major processor of meats (especially pork) sold to retailers, wholesalers, and foodservice distributors.

Meat Industry Insights

Up-to-date news bites on the meat business – profits, USDA rulings, technical developments, etc.

Meat Processing on the Internet

News briefs, searchable archive of industry publications, production statistics, index of suppliers and producers. (Free – registration and survey required for site access)

Pork Powerhouses 2008

A list of the largest pork producers in the US and Canada.

Slaughterhouse Directory

360 of America’s largest slaughterhouses and meat processing facilities. The three column table lists two USDA identification numbers followed by the name/location of the facility.

Smithfield Companies

One of the nation’s largest swine and poultry producers.

Swift & Company Armour Brand

Site includes consumer information, but nothing about hogs or production practices. Swift is a subsidiary of ConAgra, an agribusiness conglomerate.

Tyson

America’s largest chicken producer.

Agribusiness Organizations and Producer Associations

The Agribusiness Council

Dedicated to strengthening US agro-industrial competitiveness through programs which highlight international trade and development potentials as well as broad issues which encompass several individual agribusiness sectors and require a “food systems” approach.

Agribusiness, Food Industry and Forest Industry Associations on the Internet

Comprehensive list, from USDA. From the ALOT Angus Association to the Welsh Black Cattle Society. Also organized by state and region.

American Egg Board

Industry organization to promote egg producers and to increase consumer demand for eggs.

American Farm Bureau

A major farm organization that sells insurance to farmers and aggressively promotes factory farming through lobbying efforts and PR campaigns.

American Feed Industry Association

AFIA represents the animal feed, animal health, and pet food industries to federal state and international governments plus coordinated communication within the industries.

American Meat Institute

Represents packers and processors of 70% of the nation’s beef, pork, lamb, veal, and turkey products.

Animal Agriculture Alliance

Serves as the national umbrella organization through which feed, animal health, livestock, poultry groups, and others with a vested interest in animal agriculture develop and deliver consistent messages to consumers. Committed to responding to animal rights and other activist groups.

Dairy Management Inc.

DMI is comprised of the American Dairy Association, National Dairy Council, and US Dairy Export Council.

International Food Service Distributors Association

The International Foodservice Distributors Association advocates the interests of the foodservice distribution community in government and industry affairs through research, education, and communication.

International Egg Commission

A producers’ group interested in issues such as animal welfare, environment, trade, quality standardization of shell egg and egg products, food safety, cholesterol, salmonella enteriditis, nutrition, and more. Site offers primarily economic data.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

Fact sheets, position papers, and general information from the beef industry.

EatChicken.com

Promotional information about chicken from the National Chicken Council and the US Poultry & Egg Association.

National Farmers Union

A general farm organization with a membership of nearly 300,000 farm and ranch families throughout the US. The group works to sustain and strengthen family farm and ranch agriculture.

National Meat Association

Promotes the interests of the meat industry in federal regulation and national legislation.

National Pork Producers Council

A large site about the production and consumption of pork.

North Carolina Egg Association

Industry organization established in 1960 to promote eggs for producers and processors in North Carolina.

U.S. Poultry & Egg Association

Industry association dedicated to the growth, progress, and welfare of the poultry industry and all of its individual and corporate interests.

Reports:

Economic Concentration and Structural Change in the Food and Agriculture Sector: Trends, Consequences and Policy Options

The Influence of the Big Three- ADM, Cargill and ConAgra

USDA Inc.: How Agribusiness Has Hijacked Regulatory Policy at the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Through five case studies, this report reveals how political appointees with backgrounds in the agri-food industry have used their positions at the USDA to advance industry interests at the expense of farmers, consumers, workers and the environment. The report proposes four broad directions for regulatory reform to close the “revolving door” between the food industry and the USDA.

UN Right to Food Report Cites Corporate Concentration as a Cause of Hunger

In October, a United Nations investigation team called for a global monitoring system to stop food companies from using their market power to violate human rights. Headed by Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Reporter on the Right to Food presented an interim report to the UN General Assembly which states “that it is now time to develop binding legal norms that hold corporations to human rights standards and circumscribe potential abuses of their position of power.” The report recommends that governments take greater responsibility for monitoring the behavior of food companies, because “corporations are exerting increasing control over the production and provision of both food and water.”

Myths of Competition and Efficiency

“The Farm Crisis, Bigger Farms, and the Myths of Competition and Efficiency” by the National Farmers Union (Canada) takes a critical look at the fundamental assumptions that underlie agricultural policy in much of the world, primarily that larger farms are more efficient than family farms. The report examines such concepts as efficiency, competition, economies of scale, the effects of technology and the allocation of profits within the agri-food system.