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Big Corporations Have An OVERWHELMING Amount Of Power Over Our Food Supply
theeconomiccollapseblog ^ | July 14, 2014 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 07/20/2014 11:26:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

From our fields to our forks, huge corporations have an overwhelming amount of power over our food supply every step of the way. Right now there are more than 313 million people living in the United States, and the job of feeding all of those people is almost entirely in the hands of just a few dozen monolithic companies. If you do not like how our food is produced or you don't believe that it is healthy enough, it isn't very hard to figure out who is to blame. These mammoth corporations are not in business to look out for the best interests of the American people. Rather, the purpose of these corporations is to maximize wealth for their shareholders. So the American people end up eating billions of pounds of extremely unhealthy food that is loaded with chemicals and additives each year, and we just keep getting sicker and sicker as a society. But these big corporations are raking in big profits, so they don't really care.

If we did actually have a capitalist system in this country, we would have a high level of competition in the food industry. But instead, the U.S. food industry has become increasingly concentrated with each passing year. Just consider the following numbers about the U.S. agricultural sector...

The U.S. agricultural sector suffers from abnormally high levels of concentration. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios around 40%, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40% of the market. If the concentration ratio is above 40%, experts believe competition can be threatened and market abuses are more likely to occur: the higher the number, the bigger the threat.

The concentration ratios in the agricultural sector are shocking.

-Four companies own 83.5% of the beef market.
-The top four firms own 66% of the hog industry.
-The top four firms control 58.5% of the broiler chicken industry.
-In the seed industry, four companies control 50% of the proprietary seed market and 43% of the commercial seed market worldwide.
-When it comes to genetically engineered (GE) crops, just one company, Monsanto, boasts control of over 85% of U.S. corn acreage and 91% of U.S. soybean acreage.

When so much power is concentrated in so few hands, it creates some tremendous dangers.

And many of these giant corporations (such as Monsanto) are extremely ruthless. Small farmers all over America are being wiped out and forced out of the business by the predatory business practices of these huge companies...

Because farmers rely on both buyers and sellers for their business, concentrated markets squeeze them at both ends. Sellers with high market power can inflate the prices of machinery, seeds, fertilizers and other goods that farmers need for their farms, while powerful buyers, such as processors, suppress the prices farmers are paid. The razor-thin profit margins on which farmers are forced to operate often push them to "get big or get out"—expanding into mega-operations or exiting the business altogether.

Of course the control that big corporations have over our food supply does not end at the farms.

The distribution of our food is also very highly concentrated. The graphic shared below was created by Oxfam International, and it shows how just 10 gigantic corporations control almost everything that we buy at the grocery store...

10 Corporations Control What We Eat

And these food distributors are often not very good citizens either.

For example, it was recently reported that Nestle is running a massive bottled water operation on a drought-stricken Indian reservation in California...

Among the windmills and creosote bushes of San Gorgonio Pass, a nondescript beige building stands flanked by water tanks. A sign at the entrance displays the logo of Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, with water flowing from a snowy mountain. Semi-trucks rumble in and out through the gates, carrying load after load of bottled water.

The plant, located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, has been drawing water from wells alongside a spring in Millard Canyon for more than a decade. But as California’s drought deepens, some people in the area question how much water the plant is bottling and whether it’s right to sell water for profit in a desert region where springs are rare and underground aquifers have been declining.

Nestle doesn't stop to ask whether it is right or wrong to bottle water in the middle of the worst drought in the recorded history of the state of California.

They have the legal right to do it and they are making large profits doing it, and so they are just going to keep on doing it.

Perhaps you are thinking that you can avoid all of these corporations by eating organic and by shopping at natural food stores.

Well, it isn't necessarily that easy.

According to author Wenonah Hauter, the "health food industry" is also extremely concentrated...

Over the past 20 years, Whole Foods Market has acquired its competition, including Wellspring Grocery, Bread of Life, Bread & Circus, Food for Thought, Fresh Fields, Wild Oats Markets and others. Today the chain dominates the market because it has no national competitor. Over the past five years its gross sales have increased by half (47 percent) to $11.7 billion, and its net profit quadrupled to $465.6 million. One of the ways it has achieved this profitability is by selling conventional foods under the false illusion that they are better than products sold at a regular grocery store. Consumers falsely conclude that these products have been screened and are better, and they are willing to pay a higher price.

The distribution of organic foods is also extremely concentrated. A little-known company, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) now controls the distribution of organic and natural products. Publically traded, the company has a contract with Whole Foods and it is the major source of these products for the remaining independent natural food stores. This relationship has resulted in increasingly high prices for these foods. Small manufacturers are dependent on contracts with UNFI to get their products to market and conversely, small retailers often have to pay a premium price for products because of their dependence on this major distributor. Over the past five years, UNFI's net sales increased by more than half (55.6 percent) $5.2. billion. Its net profit margin increased by 88 percent to $91 million.

Everywhere you look, the corporations are in control.

And this is especially true when you look at big food retailers such as Wal-Mart.

Right now, grocery sales account for about half of all business at Wal-Mart, and approximately one out of every three dollars spent on groceries in the United States is spent at Wal-Mart.

That is absolutely astounding, and it obviously gives Wal-Mart an immense amount of power.

In fact, if you can believe it, Wal-Mart actually purchases a billion pounds of beef every single year.

So the next time someone asks you where the beef is, you can tell them that it is at Wal-Mart.

On the restaurant side, the ten largest fast food corporations account for 47 percent of all fast food sales, and the love affair that Americans have with fast food does not appear to be in danger of ending any time soon.

Personally, if you do not like how these corporate giants are behaving, you can always complain.

But you are just one person among 313 million, and most of these big corporations are not going to consider the ramblings of one person to be of any significance whatsoever.

Collectively, however, we have great power. And the way that we are going to get these big corporations to change is by voting with our wallets.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans seem quite satisfied with the status quo. So the population as a whole is likely going to continue to get sicker, fatter and less healthy with each passing year, and the big food corporations are going to keep becoming even more powerful.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: corporations; corporatocracy; familyfarms; farmers; farms; foodsupply
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To: SeekAndFind
What is this "our fields" and "our food supply" you speak of? If you have a field then you control it. If you don't, you don't, and you have no claim on anyone else's.

Feel free to grow or raise your own food. Nobody is stopping. Alternatively, you can choose to purchase what other people are willing to produce and sell. You have no claim on that until you buy it.

161 posted on 07/20/2014 8:06:15 PM PDT by mlo
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To: SeekAndFind
organic foods

Organic, I guess that means it was grown with the help of organic "petrochemicals" made from 100% natural ultra-composted biomass.

My car runs on compost too.

162 posted on 07/20/2014 8:07:07 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month.)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"You tell me how much MSG the rodents ate."

I tell you what. you give me your best guess at what too much is for a mouse then I will provide the study including link that shows the numbers.

163 posted on 07/20/2014 8:17:34 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Nope. You are silly.

You don't even have a passing training in the field, do you?

/johnny

164 posted on 07/20/2014 8:20:29 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Since you are someone that can't be taken seriously....

PLONK!

/johnny

165 posted on 07/20/2014 8:21:26 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"You don't even have a passing training in the field, do you?"

And you do?

See I know the rules of Socratic Dialog and all of the fallacies used by people who wish to cover up the fact that the facts don't support their assertions.

Take you ad hominem to where the kiddies play.

166 posted on 07/20/2014 8:26:12 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
People still live longer, better lives than they did 50 years ago.

/johnny

167 posted on 07/20/2014 8:28:21 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"Nope"

Very wise on your part. It would reveal that you are not the expert you claim...

168 posted on 07/20/2014 8:28:28 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
You claim expertise. Validate those claims.

Your assertions are meaningless, and false.

/johnny

169 posted on 07/20/2014 8:29:23 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"People still live longer, better lives than they did 50 years ago."

Ahh so your fist attempt at fallacious argument, ad hominem, failed now you moved on to Non Sequitur sorry still not playing...

170 posted on 07/20/2014 8:34:22 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: driftdiver

They need to stop getting a pass.


171 posted on 07/20/2014 8:37:59 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"You claim expertise. Validate those claims."

Really?

I in fact have claimed that Mice are fed MSG to make them fat AND I have provided proof via numerous peer reviewed studies.

You on the other hand have claimed you are an expert on the matter cuz you went to cookin' school yet you have not provided a single cite of fact just your assurance that you is an expert who went to cookin' school.

172 posted on 07/20/2014 8:38:01 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: JRandomFreeper; driftdiver; a fool in paradise

Corporations are not “fundamentally” evil. They become evil bit by bit by colluding with government, which asks a little here and there and before long the government has it’s arm up the corporate rectum playing puppeteer.

Lay down with dogs, and you wake up with fleas. Keep going to bed with dogs, you might become a dog too.

“Sure we’ll do that small favor” they answer the lobbyist “How about we do that thing that will hamstrung your competition while we’re at it?”

They get you on the hook and you become the bait. They raise barriers of entry, they raise regulations and taxes so the competition finds it hard to impossible to compete.

Pretty soon the corporation that got there first is the big boy, thanks to politicians who will now use them as the “fat cat” whipping boy to rile up the peasants against them.

Then up goes the taxes, onerous regulations, mandatory benefits, backroom bribes, paying off both major parties, making sure to buy enough ad time so the MSM leaves you mostly alone....

What to do.... find a cheaper workforce.... find a place with lower corporate tax rates (everywhere on Earth)... or maybe import those cheap workers here, those same politicians suggest helpfully. Trust us, they say, it’ll be good for everyone.

Oops, you didn’t obey regulation #101,438 part D... which completely contradicts another regulation.... class-action lawsuit!... better pay up the courts say! A billion or so for starters.

.....

On and on and on....

It is a perverse and corrupted system from the get-go. I don’t see how any person can support this mess.

It is not a case of “Stop bashing corporations!”. I support the idea of corporations but I also free enterprise and what we have today is so very far from free.


173 posted on 07/20/2014 8:52:28 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Balding_Eagle
pssst You might want to read this: GeronL sez: "I am implying that there is." or AKA what I was saying as well.
174 posted on 07/20/2014 8:58:14 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: GeronL; JRandomFreeper; driftdiver; a fool in paradise
"It is not a case of “Stop bashing corporations!”. I support the idea of corporations but I also free enterprise and what we have today is so very far from free."


175 posted on 07/20/2014 9:20:33 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg

lol


176 posted on 07/20/2014 9:24:29 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Mad Dawgg; JRandomFreeper
The problem is it's another straw man argument.

I don't think that means what you think it means. But that's not surprising for a windbag.

I said that MSG is used to make mice fat for scientific studies on obesity.

Yes, and I said that when you overwhelm the body with anything, bad shit will happen. Scientists injecting or force feeding MSG into lab rats in quantities that have absolutely no relationship to real world human consumption has nothing to do with science. You might recall me saying that in just about all of my responses to your stupidity.

What is the purpose of overwhelming the rat's physiology with MSG? Does it deliver any useful scientific information? If so, please tell me what it is. As I said many times before, scientists do this to alarm the public, especially the mindless masses, so that they can continue to attract the money necessary to study the scary issue further.

You appear to want us to believe that consuming the sodium salt of one of the most common building blocks of protein is responsible for all sorts of maladies affecting the human race today. That defies all logic. The Japanese have, for a long, long time, consumed more MSG, per capita, than any other people on earth. Yet they have one of the lowest incidences of obesity on the globe and possess the longest healthy life expectancy of any country on earth. I see a big hole in your flawed logic there, Gomer.

When it comes to processed food, the optimum level for MSG, on average, is somewhere between 0.3% and 0.4% of the food by weight. MSG as a flavor enhancer is self limiting....meaning that if you add beyond the optimum amount, the taste of the food is immediately and negatively impacted. Adding more is not better. To think that this small amount of added MSG, that is simply the sodium salt of one of the most common amino acids found in nature, could be responsible for any of the effects you seem eager to blame it for is, well, retarded.

You also seem eager to ignore the fact that humans get 10 times more glutamate from natural sources than added sources. Once again, Lucy, how can the added glutamate be bad for you if the naturally occurring isn't, but accounts for 10 times more of our total consumption? Are you trying to tell us that tomatoes, shrimp, chicken and Parmesan cheese are dangerous foods? Why do the people who eat the most added MSG on earth live longer and have one of the lowest rates of obesity than anyone on earth? You have a brain, but you're not using it.

In most of the studies you cite, the researchers forced lab rats to consume as much as 30% of their total diet in MSG. Meanwhile, the average American gets only 1 gram of added MSG a day in their diet. Converting this to human terms, a person would have to eat 1800 grams of MSG a day to equal what the scientists fed the lab rats. My math may not be exact, but that means the lab rat is eating around 3,500 times more MSG than the average American every day. To a retard that might make sense, but to anyone with a brain, this is really bad craziness. JRF and I encourage you to eat 1800 grams of straight MSG a day for a week or two, and then get back to us on your physical well being. Please do it on an empty stomach. Do you live near a hospital?

Trying to scare us into believing that if toxic levels in rats are harmful, then lower intakes for us could be dangerous, too, ignores the foundation of toxicology. You might remember it from when you studied toxicology in college -- The dose makes the poison.

J Random and I probably had more training in food science in one day than you've had in your entire life. My education is in biochemistry/food science (MS) and I'm a flavor chemist by trade. But those facts will make no difference to someone devoid of critical thinking skills, or to someone who is cursed with a fixed mentality.

If you continue to believe everything you read on the internet, you'll continue to go through life believing the nonsense you've posted here.

As someone already posted, you can have the last word.

177 posted on 07/20/2014 9:44:11 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase
Well let us start with your claim about the Japaneese: "The Japanese have, for a long, long time, consumed more MSG, per capita, than any other people on earth. Yet they have one of the lowest incidences of obesity on the globe and possess the longest healthy life expectancy of any country on earth. I see a big hole in your flawed logic there, Gomer."

So Gomer feast on this:

Japanese food conjures up images of fish, rice, miso soup and tofu but recently fitness in the Land of the Rising Sun appears to be deteriorating. Unfortunately, an increasing number of Japanese are adopting unhealthy eating patterns and eating like Sumo wrestlers. The Japanese used to eat food high in protein, but over the past few decades there has been a shift towards eating more animal fat, and western fast food. Experts warn that Japanese children are leading increasingly sedentary lives, and foregoing tofu for burgers and instant noodles...

Now as I have read in the study MSG induces one to eat more so then if the Japanese ate more of foods that were not comprised of the bad shit American processed food is full of then naturally they would be less likely to gain weight as opposed to people who ate a western fastfood (highly processed food) diet. BUT now that they are switching to a Western fast food diet that is full of MSG and tend to eat more they are catching up to us.

next this: "Meanwhile, the average American gets only 1 gram of added MSG a day in their diet."

Really? Cuz by what I've been reading in these studies you estimate is way low...

MSG consumption has increased globally in recent years, with recent estimations of the current average daily intake believed to be up to 10 g/day (16). 16. Nakanishi Y., Tsuneyama K., Fujimoto M., Salunga T. L., Nomoto K., An J. L., Takano Y., Iizuka S., Nagata M., Suzuki W., et al. 2008. Monosodium glutamate (MSG): a villain and promoter of liver inflammation and dysplasia. J. Autoimmun. 30: 42–50 [PubMed]

BTW the study referenced above sez the affect of MSG and transfats is causing Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in a large portion of the populace which BTW two of my doctors cited the same cause but I am sure they are all part of the vast conspiracy to make your industry look bad.

178 posted on 07/20/2014 10:45:37 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Japanese food conjures up images of fish, rice, miso soup and tofu but recently fitness in the Land of the Rising Sun appears to be deteriorating. Unfortunately, an increasing number of Japanese are adopting unhealthy eating patterns and eating like Sumo wrestlers. The Japanese used to eat food high in protein, but over the past few decades there has been a shift towards eating more animal fat, and western fast food. Experts warn that Japanese children are leading increasingly sedentary lives, and foregoing tofu for burgers and instant noodles.

Wow, a higher fat/higher caloric diet (fat contains more than twice the calories, per gram, as carbs and protein) and a sedentary lifestyle is leading to health problems among Japanese children. Who would have thunk it? The horror.

The Japanese have been eating a diet high in MSG for hundreds and hundreds of years while never suffering from obesity. They also continue to enjoy one of the longest life spans of any people. But now you want to blame MSG for higher calorie diets and a sedentary lifesyle. Idiot.

MSG consumption has increased globally in recent years, with recent estimations of the current average daily intake believed to be up to 10 g/day (16). 16. Nakanishi Y., Tsuneyama K., Fujimoto M., Salunga T. L., Nomoto K., An J. L., Takano Y., Iizuka S., Nagata M., Suzuki W., et al. 2008. Monosodium glutamate (MSG): a villain and promoter of liver inflammation and dysplasia. J. Autoimmun. 30: 42–50 [PubMed]

Yes, the current daily intake of glutamate from all sources is estimated to be around 10 grams per day. Of that amount, approximately 90% comes from naturally occurring sources while approximately 10% comes from added sources. Hence, 1 gram per day from added sources.

Trying to use Google as a substitute for an education in life science is about as effective as using Google as a replacement for critical thinking skills. You are failing in both respects. Please stop. Go find something else to occupy your time.

179 posted on 07/21/2014 8:00:28 AM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mase
"Yes, the current daily intake of glutamate from all sources is estimated to be around 10 grams per day"

Nice try except the article did not say "all sources" but you keep trying there sparky.

"The Japanese have been eating a diet high in MSG for hundreds and hundreds of years while never suffering from obesity."

Yes and in those hundreds of years they have been eating an eastern diet lacking in the modern wonders Big Agra gives us in a our processed food. But now they are eating food which has MSG combined with trans fats and all the other wonderful crap they are getting fatter. Their caloric intake is increasing now is that because they all suddenly got hungrier in the last couple of decades?

Is it possible the combo of MSG and say transfats or highly refined sugars like HFC create on override on the bodies ability to recognize it has taken in enough food?

What I've read states that MSG is absorbed very quickly in the blood stream where as glutamic acid-containing proteins in foods (A.K.A. natural occurring glutamate) does not. Thus MSG spikes the level of glutamate in the bloodstream so saying it is the same as natural occurring glutamate is a misnomer at best.

So then you have MSG spiking glutamate levels in the bloodstream what does such do to the glutamate receptors responsible for taste in the human body>

Did you know there is a malady called "Excitotoxicity"? Basically its a condition where the glutamate receptors get over stimulated by high levels of:

wait for it...

wait for it...

wait for it...

Glutamate in the bloodstream.

Gee isn't that interesting?

Large amounts of Glutamate in the bloodstream all at once overload the taste receptors of the human body and can cause Excitotoxicity yet naturally occurring Glutamate in foods don't spike those levels...

interesting. Don't you think?

180 posted on 07/21/2014 9:04:05 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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