Where Did All the Farming Go?
 
Only a few decades ago, most of America’s food came from local, family farms. However during the latter part of the 20th century, food production was consolidated into the hands of a few corporations that frequently put profit ahead of the livelihood of the American farmer, worker safety, the environment and public health. The result? We eat too much overly cheap, nutritionally devoid food.
 
How Did We Get Here?
During the Great Depression, farmers were hit hard and the government stepped in to support farmers’ income by subsidizing their crops. While this worked in the economy of the dust bowl era, the practice has become corrupt and wasteful. Today crops are still subsidized and many farms are owned by corporations who are overproducing a profitable but severely limited selection of crops mostly: corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton. These corporations are reluctant to grow more diverse crops because they can get more money in subsidy checks from the government for growing the above mention crops than for growing more botanically diverse (and more healthful foods) like fruits and vegetables at market price. This overproduction of a limited amount of crops is harming the environment, small farmers and suppressing world food prices.
 
In 2002 farmers earned the lowest net cash income since 1940, while corporate agribusiness profits increased 98% during the 1990s. Agricultural consolidation has resulted in the loss of family farms. New England alone has lost 66% of its dairy farms in the last 30 years. On a larger scale of produce, one large company (Monsanto) controls the seeds of 93% of the soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the United States. Four companies (Tyson, Cargill, Swift and National Beef Packing Company) control 83% of the beef packing industry. Another four companies (Smithfield, Tyson, Swift and Cargill) control 66% of the pork packing industry.