Friday, the DOJ (Department of Justice) held the first of a series of "workshop" to deal with antitrust issues in agriculture. This first one was in Iowa, focusing on issues of concern to farmers. In anticipation of the event, a broad coalition of family farm, anti-hunger, religious, environmental and public policy groups established the website Bust Big Food (obviously in support of government action in breaking up corporations that prevent fair competition in the marketplace).
WHY Hunger says the following about competition in food and agriculture:
There are 2 million farmers and 300 million consumers in the US. Standing in the middle are a handful of corporations who control just about everything that happens to our food between the farm and our plate -- how much it costs, how it's grown, where it comes from, what's in it, and who sells it. Most of what probably matters to you about why food isn't healthier, safer, tastier, or all around better is affected by that narrow bottleneck of power between producers and consumers.
Standard economics holds that if the top four companies in any industry control over 50% of the market, that industry is no longer freely competitive. Right now, the top four companies control 85% of the nation's beef, 70% of pork, and 60% of the nation's poultry. Three corporations process over 70% of the nation's soy. Just one company controls 40% of our milk supply, and Monsanto holds patents on 80% of corn seed. Our food system has become one of the least competitive sectors of the marketplace.
If you want to send comments to the DOJ, please do so here (the deadline was Dec 31, 2009 but it seems that they are still accepting comments).
The night before the first workshop, many of the same groups behind the Bust Big Food website came together in a town hall format. Their goal was to allow everyone to speak, including people who would not be heard at the official DOJ event. You can see a video of this town hall here:
WHY Hunger wrote the following about the town hall:
Last night in Ankeny, Iowa, just north of Des Moines, a standing-room-only crowd of over 250 people called on the Justice Department and USDA to "bust up big ag!" and put the needs of people before corporations. Today is the official listening session where the government agencies will hear from all interested parties on the issue of corporate concentration in the food system - particularly, this round addresses "Issues of Concern to Farmers" - but the scheduled panels today are heavy on business and light on actual farmers. Several local groups organized Thursday's town hall as a venue for farmers to voice their real concerns.
The evening began with a panel of independent farmers from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri addressing concentration in seeds, dairy, and livestock; a representative from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union; and good food advocates talking about consumer issues (I had the great privilege to be one of those last speakers).
And then the floor was open to public comments. About 50 people spoke, almost all of them farmers. They told heartbreaking stories: The 29th anniversary of one man's parents was a farm foreclosure. "The American Dream has turned into the American nightmare" for a southern Iowa dairy farmer, whose milk prices have been so low he can't afford his feed costs. The 15-year-old son of a fifth generation dairy farmer wants to become the sixth generation, but if things don't change in the next six months, they're not going to have a farm.
Things are dire for farmers - as they are for so many of people who don't have control over their food - but they're ready to fight. They made powerful demands of the Department of Justice and Congress to enforce antitrust laws and break up the hugely concentrated ag industries. But government isn't quite the last hope; people are. A family farmer from near Des Moines wanted to talk about power: "Industry cannot turn one wheel unless people make those machines work," he said. "We have the power here, and we need to understand what that power means."
Then came the DOJ event itself. Two cabinet members were present - Attorney General Eric Holder and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. According to Reuters:
Holder told the crowd of farmers, labor and consumer groups and corporate representatives that the Justice Department sees erosion of competitive markets as a significant threat to the U.S. economy, thus a national security matter.
"We want everybody to have a fair shot," said Holder. "Big is not necessarily bad, but big can be bad if power that comes from being big is misused. That is simply not something that this Department of Justice is going to stand for."
As the hearing was held in the heart of corn and soy country, much of the hearing as devoted to discussing Monsanto's control over the seed market. Monsanto sent a Vice President to the workshop, who of course denied any wrongdoing by Monsanto. Unfortunately, according to Business Week, the Supreme Court may have paved the way for a Monsanto victory.
It seems, from this NPR story about the workshop that Iowa's other major farm product - hogs - came up on the agenda as well:
Jim Foster with his old open-air hog barns in Montgomery County, Mo., will be in Ankney, Iowa, for those sessions, and he is one of the producers looking for change. "Bought this place in '63 when I got out of college and got married, been here ever since," Foster said.
It hasn't been easy keeping this rambling operation together. Big packing companies took over most pork production years ago. That drove down prices and drove most of Foster's neighbors out of the industry.
Twenty-five years ago, Montgomery County had about 200 independent hog farmers. Foster is one of two now. He's got just one steady buyer for his hogs.
I'm loving all of the national attention on Monsanto's wrongdoing, but this story about hogs reminds us that seeds are but one of many concentrated and anticompetitive industries. Hopefully these hearings will address and take action on all of them, not just corn and soy seeds.
