Profile picture
Matt Stoller @matthewstoller
, 14 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
Monopoly power is about the power to discriminate. Take this story earlier this year of black farmers being sold fake seeds and then pushed off their land. I've done a bit of research into the company being blamed, Stine Seeds. wmcactionnews5.com/story/38610463…
The owner of Stine Seeds, Harry Stine, is a billionaire. Stine Seeds and Monsanto sell soybean seed genetics, basically it's a toll booth farmers have to pay. But this isn't a good product, it's a government-licensed monopoly that didn't exist prior to the 1980s.
Stine's innovation was not creating better seeds, though he did that. It was putting in contracts that farmers couldn't use his seeds to grow crops, and then replant from seeds from their own crops. And they couldn't start their own breeding programs. It was stopping competition.
Prior to the 1970s, seed genetics were basically public commons. The Department of Agriculture basically did massive experimentation to help all farmers with better seeds in different climates. The U.S. gov't had massive publicly available knowledge on how to grow crops.
Then Monsanto, and Stine Seeds, inverted this. The government allowed the *privatization* of seed genetics through patents. And prevented replanting via the law. They overturned a core part of farming that has existed for THOUSANDS of years. Farmers have to buy seeds every year.
One of the consequences is that family owned farming has collapsed. Seeds and chemicals are far more expensive. But another is that the most politically vulnerable farmers - black farmers - seem to have been explicitly targeted via pricing.
In 1920, black farmers made up 14% of all the farmers in America. By 2003 they were less than 1%. It's a complex story, but one key part of it has been a massive expropriation of property of land owned by black farmers. npr.org/2005/02/22/522…
This has happened through racism by the USDA's refusal to offer farm credit to black and brown farmers the same way they would do so for white farmers. But it is also a story of concentration of power, concentration of land, and the ability of monopolists to discriminate.
Monopolists engage in economic discrimination based on size and power. This is the backbone of how much discrimination - including gender-based, race-based - actually works. All the 'isms' work through economic discrimination, which is about concentrated power.
All of this is a way of saying two things. One, those who separate race and economics are missing the point. Operationally it's the same institutions that do both with the same tools. Going after the little guy (black, brown or white) the same way you go after black families.
Two, addressing 'isms' means going into where power truly lies, which is the alphabet agencies of government where the billionaires play. SEC. FTC. DOJ Antitrust. USDA. OCC. The Fed. That's where racism, operationalized through the economic power to discriminate, lives.
The story of race and power can be counter-intuitive. The Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, which brought the suit against Stine Seeds, endorsed Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh ruled in their favor on settlement claims. mybfaa.us/black-farmers-…
I am reminded of a quote from a small business lobbyist from a hearing in the 1970s on the new class of consumer rights and environmentalist Democrats. These new members largely opposed the pricing laws that prevented chain stores from destroying independent businesses.
"These are the people that wouldn't think of committing discrimination in a sociological context and that would horrify them, but in an economic context, it becomes the thing to do."
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Matt Stoller
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!