The Pros And Cons Of The Food Industry

The food industry has become monopolized by only a select few companies who have lied, mistreated workers and animals, and avoided abiding by required laws. The monopolization has spread like an uncontainable wildfire and has not stopped yet. These companies have grown into mass industries and weaved themselves into every corner of everyday life without anyone knowing the difference. In 1970 the top five beef packers controlled twenty five percent of the market, whereas today the top four packers control eighty percent of the market (Kener). These large corporations have taken over the food industry and removed the ability for low cost healthy choices by replacing it with processed, unhealthy meat. This new food industry is found on a greed

Pure competition drives down prices due to a large consumer need, for example restaurants or clothing. Similarly, a duopoly is when two companies own an industry and balance each other with an agreement on share ownership; for example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Airbus and Boeing, and Visa and MasterCard. In addition, there are monopolies in which a few select companies dominate and compete in a market, such as the American Chemical Industry and utility companies. In these companies, prices go down with more companies competing and in the food industry they don’t have a regulated stopping point at setting the price bar. This makes them able to fluctuate as they wish(Gilani). Unlike the food industry the utility companies are regulated by the Public Utilities Regulator because these companies control a basic necessity for the public and need to be checked, but if utilities are regulated, why not the food industry? The food industry has been monopolized by a select few companies, capitalizing on excessive profit, government inefficiency, and the manipulation of the populace when the industry should become an equal balance of agricultural corporations, along with affordable organic farms and businesses, unless the current industry could make a radical change from the unhealthy food they capitalize on

Tyson Foods took in $12.7 billion in beef sales and owns 25% of the US market, Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. reported 88.3 billion in sales and owns 21% of the US market, JBS USA took in 9.2 billion in sales and owns 18.5% of the US market, National Beef Packing though took in 5.4 billion in sales in owns 10.5% of the US market (Ostlind). These four major companies dominate the food market in America and around the world without sufficient limitations on growth and control of the market. In order to gain more wealth, these companies cut cost of food production by keeping the animals they kill penned up in disgusting factory farms, which easily create high amounts of E. coli and in some cases salmonella. This cuts cost by reducing the amount of land needed to hold the animals. In addition to this, the corporations allow their factories and workers to become filthy, and disease ridden, while processing the meat that is spread throughout grocery stores in America. E. coli rates have been increasing due to these conditions, “before 1982, the [CDC] had identified only one E. coli isolate of the 0157:H7 stereotype… last year, the CDC estimated that strains of E. coli 0157:H7 cause approximately 73,000 illnesses and 60 deaths per year in the United States,”(Gansheroff). The amount of disease and E. coli spreading through the