Food In The Hands Of A Few
credit: guardian design
American grocery stores seem like they hold a cornucopia of choices but an investigation by “The Guardian” found that most products are controlled by just a handful of companies.
In fact, 79% of all groceries in an American market are sold by a handful of companies. PepsiCo alone controles 88% of the dip market and 73% of all breakfast cereals are made by one of three brands: General Mills, Kellogg and Post. More than 80% of beef and 70% of pork come from four massive meat producers.
So what? Well, when big corporations control food, they can make choices for profit instead of for the betterment of human health and the environment.
“It’s a system designed to funnel money into the hands of corporate shareholders and executives while exploiting farmers and workers and deceiving consumers about choice, abundance and efficiency,” Amanda Starbuck, a policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, said of the study.
Last week President Biden signed an executive order to combat antitrust bastions in the U.S. but the government can only do so much. YOU as a consumer have a lot more options to buy local and reduce your dependency on processed foods. Let’s all try harder!
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