Ruby Ridge. Waco. Oklahoma City. Three warning bells from a heartland
that most of us who are urban dwellers know little or nothing about. Cause of
rural dwellers' rage? In 1996 there were 1,471 mergers of American corporations
in the interest of "consolidation." This was the largest number of mergers in
American history, and the peak of a trend that had been growing in the world of
agriculture since the late 1970s...
Currently, a handful of agro-conglomerates are
working to drive America's remaining small farmers off their land by
systematically paying them less for their produce than it costs to grow, thus
forcing them to get loans from the conglomerates' banks, assume mortgages, and
undergo foreclosures and the sale of land to corporate-controlled agribusiness.
But is this really a conspiracy or just the Darwinian workings of an efficient
marketplace? There is, for once, a smoking gun in the form of a blueprint
describing how best to rid the nation of small farmers. Dyer writes: "In 1962, the
Committee for Economic Development comprised approximately seventy-five
of the nation's most powerful corporate executives. They represented not only
the food industry but also oil and gas, insurance, investment and retail industries.
Almost all groups that stood to gain from consolidation were represented on that
committee. Their report [An Adaptive Program for Agriculture] outlined a plan. to eliminate farmers and farms. It was detailed and well thought out."
Simultaneously, "as early as 1964, congressmen were being told by industry
giants like Pillsbury, Swift, General Foods, and Campbell Soup that the biggest
problem in agriculture was too many farmers." Good psychologists, the CEOs
had noted that farm children, if sent to college, seldom return to the family farm.
Or as one famous economist said to a famous senator who was complaining
about jet lag on a night flight from New York to London, "Well, it sure beats
farming." The committee got the government to send farm children to college.
Predictably, most did not come back. Government then offered to help farmers
relocate in other lines of work, allowing their land to be consolidated in ever
vaster combines owned by fewer and fewer corporations...
By 1982 "these companies controlled 96 percent of U.S. wheat exports, 95
percent of U.S. corn exports" and so on through the busy aisles of chic Gristedes,
homely Ralph's, sympathetic Piggly Wigglys.
Has consolidation been good for the customers? By and large, no.
Monopolies allow for no bargains, nor do they have to fuss too much about
quality because we have no alternative to what they offer. Needless to say, they
are hostile to labor unions and indifferent to working conditions for the onceindependent farmers, now ill-paid employees. For those of us who grew up in
the prewar United States there was the genuine ham sandwich. Since
consolidation, ham has been so rubberized that it tastes of nothing at all while its
texture is like rosy plastic. Why? In the great hogariums a hog remains in one
place, on its feet, for life. Since it does not root about—or even move—it builds
up no natural resistance to disease. This means a great deal of drugs are pumped
into the prisoner's body until its death and transfiguration as inedible ham.
By and large, the Sherman antitrust laws are long since gone. Today three
companies control 80 percent of the total beef-packing market. How does this
happen? Why do dispossessed farmers have no congressional representatives to
turn to? Why do consumers get stuck with mysterious pricings of products that
in themselves are inferior to those of an earlier time? Dyer's answer is simple but
compelling. Through their lobbyists, the corporate executives who drew up the
"adaptive program" for agriculture now own or rent or simply intimidate
Congresses and presidents while the courts are presided over by their former
lobbyists, an endless supply of white-collar servants since two-thirds of all the
lawyers on our small planet are Americans. Finally, the people at large are not
represented in government while corporations are, lavishly.