Occupy Against Big Food
Everyone who eats needs to know where their food is coming from and what impact it has on their life. If you live in the US you need to know that just like in other areas such as banking, housing, health care and energy our food system is controlled by corporations. In fact, over 50% of the food market is controlled by just 4 companies. Right now, the top four companies control 85 percent of the nation’s beef, 70 percent of pork, and 60 percent of the nation’s poultry. Monsanto holds patents on 80 percent of corn seed. And U.S. agribusiness is getting bigger and bigger, and, like the financial sector, is subject to less and less government regulation or oversight.
All along the food chain, people are squeezed by powerful corporations: Walmart demands low prices from its suppliers, so the suppliers cut wages for workers in the factories and fields; most food stores rely on a single national buyer, so it is almost impossible for small producers to get products onto the shelves; supermarket chains buy out the competition and then close the only store in a low-income neighborhood.
The level of consolidation all along the food chain has reached such an extreme degree that last year the Department of Justice and the USDA conducted an investigation into antitrust issues in agriculture and food. During a year of workshops, the Departments heard expert testimony and thousands of personal stories about farm foreclosures, bankruptcy, workers’ rights abuses, unfair contracts, poor access to healthy food, and corporate propaganda; much of it demonstrating that antitrust laws are not protecting citizens from powerful corporations. The investigation concluded in December; the Departments issued a joint letter in July stating that they are continuing to study the issue. After a year of investigation, testimony, and almost a quarter of a million petition signatures requesting immediate action, the promise of nothing more than further study makes it seem as though the voices of big business have been louder than those of the people.
The food industry screws farmers, its own employees, and the environment.
In antitrust theory, when four players control more than 40 percent of a market, they're said to wield "market power"—that is, they can manipulate the prices they charge consumers and the terms on which they deal with their suppliers. So, rather than raise prices, the food industry has slashed costs—at the expense of workers, farmers, and the environment.
The meat industry provides a stark example. Today, you can grab a McDonald's McDouble burger or a McChicken sandwich for a dollar. As I noted above, just a few companies process the great bulk of meat consumed in the United States. How can they do that profitably, when McDonald's is practically giving burgers away? Simple: screw the workers.
Screw the Environment
Industrial Livestock Production is the greatest contributor to antropologic climate change
What could be worse than being the greatest contributor to killing the Earth?
Tom Philpott in Mother Jones say it best: Wall Street's greed leaves millions to starve—literally.
two recent UN reports directly implicate commodities speculators for driving up the price of key food staples like rice and wheat—leaving tens of millions of people around the world hungry in order to make a buck. A new study (PDF) reaching the same conclusion has emerged from the New England Complex Systems Institute—and was reviewed by two Harvard economists and an official from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Sure, these analyses note, US and European biofuel programs have played a role in all this by (foolishly) diverting key food staples into car fuel. But Wall Street took the biofuel craze to a whole new level.
Our politicians are in bed with agribusiness.
Like the big banks, the handful of companies that dominate our food system dedicate loads of cash to throwing their weight around in DC.
From 1998 through 2011, the agribusiness sector dropped $1.4 billion on lobbying, reports the Center for Responsive Politics. That's considerably less than the finance and health sectors, but enough to put it sixth on the CRP's list of clout-wielding sectors, beating out defense contractors ($1.3 billion) and trial lawyers ($366 million).
The US has paid a steep price for 30 years of conservative/laissez faire policies including: destruction of our financial system, destruction of our infrastructure, plummeting of our health care system, the destruction of our food supply, and lastly the destruction of the Earth our only home.
We need everyone on board to fight the continuation of these destructive policies caused by greed and the accumulation of wealth and power by our corporate kleptocracy.
Get down to Zucotti Park in NYC tomorrow Sat. October 29 @1PM to Occupy Against Big Food!!
If you can't get there you can still make a difference by signing this petition
to congress for a fair 2012 Farm Bill.
You can bet the lobbyists for Big Agri are already giving with their 'donations' to influence for unhealthy fast food and Earth killing agriculture practices.
Text of Petition:
Petition to Congress:
Our current food system is broken, and it didn’t happen by accident. It’s time for a new Farm Bill that creates a healthy food system. Please support these actions in the next Farm Bill:
-Level the playing field for farmers
-Make markets fair for farmers and consumers
-Ensure food security by restoring the grain reserve
-Make healthy food accessible for all people
-Rebuild local infrastructure for regional food systems
-Make smart government food purchases
-Support new sustainable farming programs
-Promote environmental stewardship
-Require full safety reviews and labeling of GE foods
-Stop subsidizing factory farms and dangerous technologies
Thank you for your consideration,