Agriculture (Biosphere)

Agriculture Focus

Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system

11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production.

Act today to help end corporate control of your food: Tell the DOJ and USDA it's time to bust up Big Food!

If there’s one thing that we’ve all learned in recent years, concentration of wealth and anticompetitive actions in our nation’s economy harm all of us. And this couldn’t be more true than in our nation's food system. It may be hard to believe, but most meals that Americans eat today are controlled by only a handful of companies.

Concentration has grown so great in our nation’s food supply that it’s time for the government to start enforcing our nation’s antitrust laws, take a quick look at how alarming it actually is:

1 company (Monsanto) controls the seeds of 93% of soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the U.S., 4 companies (Tyson, Cargill, Swift and National Beef Packing Co.) control 83% of the beef packing industry, and just 4 companies (Smithfield, Tyson, Swift and Cargill) control 66% of the pork-packing industry.

This incredible imbalance in who controls how our food is raised, processed, distributed and sold has created a serious imbalance in how family farmers are treated in their contracts, the prices they are ultimately paid and opportunities that they have to hand their farm down to their children. At the same time, the prices for consumers are increasing, while the farmer’s share has drastically declined, leaving more profits for giant agribusiness at the expense of consumers, farmers and our democracy.

Click Here to tell Attornery General Holder and Secretary Vilsack that you appreciate their courage in taking this on and believe it’s time to break up the biggest abusers.