The concentration of corporate interests within the US food system has made food

As sociologists of the rural As sociologists of the rural, we analyze the changes that occur in the food system as well as the sustainability of food systems. We’ve followed closely the consolidation of food processing, production and distribution across the U.S. over the past 40 years. We believe this consolidation process is making food more expensive or unavailable to many Americans.

Larger, smaller companies with fewer employees

Consolidation has put key decisions regarding our eating habits in the hands of a handful of big companies, which gives them an enormous amount of influence to influence policymakers as well as direct industry and food research and influence the coverage of media. These companies also have a huge ability to decide how food is produced, where, by whom, and how and who gets to take it for a meal. We’ve been following this trend all over the world..

It all began in the 80s through mergers and acquisitions, which left a handful of large companies in charge of almost every aspect of the chain of food. The biggest are retailers Walmart as well as food processing company Nestle along with the seed/chemical business Bayer.

Between 1996 and 2013, Monsanto bought around 70 seed firms prior to being bought by the rival chemical and seed company Bayer in the year 2018. Philip Howard, CC BY-ND

Certain leaders of corporations have abused their power, for instance, in collaborating with a few of their rivals to set prices. In 2020, Christopher Lischewski, the former president and CEO of Bumblebee Foods, was convicted of conspiracy to fix the prices of tuna canned. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and fined $100,000.

The same year, the chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride was found guilty of price fixing and was punished with $110.5 million. Meatpacking firm JBS agreed to settle a $24.5 million price-fixing case involving pork, and farmers were awarded the class action settlement against peanut-shelling firms Olam as well as Birdsong.

Industry consolidation can be difficult to monitor. A single parent company owns many subsidiaries and participate in “contract packing,” in which a single facility produces identical food products, which are then offered under a variety of brands, including brands that directly compete with one another.

Recalls due to food-borne disease epidemics have revealed the wide nature of the contracting relationships. Shutdowns of meatpacking facilities caused by COVID-19 infection in workers have shown how large a portion of the U.S. food supply flows through just a few factories.

Due to consolidation, major supermarket chains have shuttered a number of stores in urban or small-scale stores. This has left a number of communities with a limited selection of food and expensive prices – particularly areas with poor, Black or Latino households.

In 2006, The Community Grocery Store in the small town of Walsh, Colorado, avoided being shut down through the sale of stock to residents. The store will be operating in 2021.

Widespread hunger

Since the rate of unemployment has increased in the outbreak and the population has also increased, so too has the number of people who are hungry Americans. Feeding America, an all-encompassing network of food banks, estimates that as many as 50 million Americans – which includes 17 million children – could have food insecurity at present. Nationally, the demand for food banks has increased by 48 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

In parallel, disruptions to food supply chains caused the farmers to dump their milk into the waste basin, leave food waste rotting in fields, and kill animals that could not be processed in slaughterhouses. We believe from March to May 2020, farmers eliminated between 300,000 and 800,000. Chickens and hogs consume more than 30,000 tons of meat.

What is the role of concentration in this scenario? Research has shown that concentration in retail is associated with more expensive prices that consumers pay. This also indicates that the food system has fewer manufacturing and processing facilities, disruptions can have significant effects on the supply.

Consolidation can make it easier for any industry to keep the high costs. With only a few players, companies simply have to match each other’s price hikes instead of being competitive with them. The concentration in on the U.S. food system has increased the cost of all things from breakfast cereals as well as the coffee up to the price of beer.