The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies | Food & Water Watch
Victory! Cleveland passes resolution against antibiotic misuse on factory farms. more wins »
X

Stay Informed

Sign up for email to learn how you can protect food and water in your community.

   Please leave this field empty

Connect with us

Twitter Facebook RSS Instagram YouTube
When I scan my Inbox each day, I single out emails from Food & Water Watch because they keep me up-to-date on back-room shenanigans that affect relevant issues that are of concern to me... like the food I buy in the grocery store! And when they ask me to do something, I do it.
Paul Keleher
Food & Water Watch > Fact Sheets > The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies
December 5th, 2012

The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies

DOWNLOAD PDF VIEW ON SCRIBD

The agriculture and food sector is unusually concentrated, with just a few companies dominating the market in each link of the food chain. In most sectors of the U.S. economy, the four largest firms control between 40 and 45 percent of the market, and many economists maintain that higher levels of concentration can start to erode competitiveness. Yet according to data compiled by the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2012, in the agriculture and food sector, the four largest companies controlled 82 percent of the beef packing industry, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork packing, and 53 percent of broiler chicken processing.