Just two companies control over 70% of cold storage in the US. Dozens of acquisitions shut small food companies out of chilled warehouse space. But new construction is on the rise.
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Claire Kelloway wrote about the role of food corporations’ market power in rising prices (and rising profit margins) for Time magazine.
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JBS makes a bid for Australia’s second-largest salmon corporation, supercharging fears about factory farms at sea.
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From COVID-19 supply chain disruptions to inflated food prices, Hendrickson and her co-authors argue that our consolidated food system vests too much decision-making power in a few private actors who do not have the public interest at heart.
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A shrinking handful of corporations and cooperatives control a growing portion of global dairy production, to the detriment of rural communities and the environment, argues a new report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
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COVID-19 has upended America’s food supply. With the loss of big buyers in restaurants and school districts, farmers without a place to sell their foods are dumping milk, tilling crops back into the ground, and euthanizing egg-laying hens.
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Wholesale beef prices have jumped to record levels, as shoppers stockpile meat in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. But this run on beef isn’t helping cattle ranchers. On the contrary, cattle prices have plummeted since January, putting many ranchers on the brink of collapse.
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Presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill on Monday to radically reform an animal agriculture system that currently puts independent producers, rural communities, and consumers at risk.
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Last week, nearly 500 cattle producers from 14 states rallied in Omaha, Nebraska to denounce corporate control over cattle markets and to demand that the Trump administration do something to fix it.
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Walmart sells 50 percent or more of all groceries in one in every ten metropolitan areas and nearly one in three “micropolitan” areas across the country, according to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, out last week. In 38 of these regions, Walmart sells 70 percent or more of all groceries.
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A recent study documenting consolidation and specialization in Alaska’s fisheries over the past three decades illustrates a broader trend taking hold in coastal communities across the country. Catch share programs, a new fisheries management system, are turning fishing rights into tradable commodities, driving up the cost to fish and consolidating fishing rights into the hands of a few wealthy owners.
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In a recent letter to government regulators, the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) argues that the proposed $66 billion takeover of SunTrust by BB&T will harm “rural and economically disadvantaged areas.” In the letter, the NBFA said the takeover will result in fewer rural branches, less competition in the regions where many of their members farm, and cuts in staff and services, particularly those dedicated to anti-discrimination compliance oversight.
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