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LSP Statement on Agribusiness Moratorium Bill
Contact: Mark Schultz 612-722-6377 Paul Sobocinski (507) 342-2323
11/07/99
Farmers and Consumers Demand a Halt to Agribusiness Mergers: Wellstone-Dorgan Moratorium is Needed Now
Increasing control of agriculture by a relative handful of powerful transnational corporations is forcing farmers and consumers to call for a halt to the corporate merger blitzkrieg currently underway. The aggressive acquisition strategy being employed by Cargill, Smithfield, Monsanto, and other transnational corporations may be big business for corporate lawyers, but it is tearing apart the economic fabric of our rural communities while threatening the security of America's food supply.
Smithfield Foods is an appropriate example. The Land Stewardship Project, along with the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, called on the Justice Department and the USDA to halt Smithfield's acquisition of meatpacker John Morrell a few years back. Nothing was done. Several weeks later, Smithfield took over Dakota Pork of Huron, SD. Within weeks, they had shut this competitor down, throwing 800 people out of work, and sewing up more of the Midwest hog market ---- while denying market options (other than Smithfield) for Minnesota and South Dakota hog farmers. Meanwhile, Smithfield was busy acquiring more hog factories, not just in North Carolina, but nationwide. If Smithfield's purchase of Murphy Farms and Tyson (two huge factory farm systems) is approved, they will own nearly 20% of the sows in the United States, making them the biggest hog producer and the biggest hog packer in the country. Never before has a company been allowed to acquire such control over a major American food product.
Smithfield is a company known to maximize corporate profits without regard for environmental stewardship or economic fairness. They are responsible for literally thousands of environmental violations due to illegal dumping and other actions in Virginia, in the 1990s alone. They made no real effort to rectify the problem, nor to clean it up, until taken to court. Meanwhile, they locked family farmers out of the market on the East Coast, paying them prices far below what they paid their corporate contractors ---- wealthy investors and large-scale operators with whom they do business.
Similar concerns can be raised about other corporations on the takeover binge. The point is, that as corporations grow in size and in market area, they become unaccountable to the communities in which they operate, while they extract wealth from those same communities and accumulate it in corporate financial centers. This is not the situation we want with corporations who are heavily involved in factory farming (Cargill and Smithfield), with genetic engineering (Monsanto and others), pesticides (Monsanto and others), or other products. This is not fair competition for farmers to face, it is not healthy for rural citizens, it is not healthy for our food supply, and it is not healthy for our democracy.
The Wellstone-Dorgan moratorium is a wise and necessary piece of legislation, to give our nation a chance to consider what is happening with excessive mergers in agriculture, and to take appropriate action. The Land Stewardship Project urges the Senate to pass this measure.
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