Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
industrial agriculture externalizes some of its costs onto soci-
ety, making the real cost of food higher than the price in the
grocery store. For example, it may get away with polluting the
water, leaving the cost of the cleanup to others.
Activists sometimes argue that corporations grow big not
just to benefit from economies of scale, but to gain market
power and political influence. They look at the endless varie-
ties of food in the grocery store but see only a few corporations
producing it all, making them feel like they are at the mercy
of big business. Figure 1.3 depicts how a large number of food
brands can be produced by only a few corporations, making
it difficult to assess whether the food market is competitive
or not. To counter the power of big business, modern democ-
racies also evolved big government, manifested in the many
regulations regarding farming and food processing. Food
safety laws can be so onerous that they prohibit an individual
from giving free food to the homeless. Regulations have their
benefits also, and these regulations help to ensure that food is
not adulterated, pesticides approved for sale are safe, lakes are
protected from fertilizer runoff, meat does not contain traces
of antibiotics, and livestock are slaughtered humanely.
The rise of big business and big government can be a good
thing, simultaneously allowing economies of scale to lower
the price of food and regulations to protect us from irresponsi-
ble corporate behavior. Food activists appear to take the oppo-
site view though, believing that what has really resulted is big
business corrupting big government, allowing corporations
to write their own rules. When food activist and best-selling
author Michael Pollan appeared on The Colbert Report in 2013,
he suggested food cooked by a corporation is unhealthy. The
Cornucopia Institute has published a diagram titled Is the USDA
a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Monsanto? listing fifteen individ-
uals who have held important positions in both the USDA and
Monsanto. The organization Food Democracy Now! describes
itself as being motivated by the fact that the US government
cares more about the interests of corporate agribusiness than
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