The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies | Food & Water Watch
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Food & Water Watch > Fact Sheets > The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies
December 5th, 2012

The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies

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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.