Thread by @doctorow

The reason that farmers are euthanizing livestock and throwing away produce while grocery stores are unable to get shelf-stock is monopoly. Out-of-control concentration in the supply chain has made it terribly, fatally brittle.

pluralistic.net/2020/04/29/ban…

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This concentration began with the "Confined Animal Feeding Operations" (CAFOs) of the 1970s, which moved animals from pastures into dark, overcrowded barns that were only profitable due to public subsidies for feed and relaxed rules on antibiotic use.

civileats.com/2020/04/30/op-…

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The meat monopolists that resulted have spent 40 years socializing their costs and privatizing their gains. The profits reaped by Tyson, Smithfield, and Perdue let them buy up or force under the regional, family-owned businesses that predated CAFO.

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Today, these firms own everything EXCEPT the farms where the animals are raised. But they DO own the animals the farmers are raising. The farmers raise the animals on contract.

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Contract farmers are like Uber drivers who are responsible for the buying and maintaining cars, but only earn at the whim of a giant multinational, and then only the bare minimum to keep them from going under.

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That's why the farmers are killing and disposing of their livestock. It's not theirs to begin with. Their hyperspecialized facilities can only handle growing - not grown - animals, and the multinational monopolists that own those grown animals have ordered them destroyed.

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The few remaining independent small producers, processors, and wholesalers are stepping up and maintaining our food supply.

politico.com/news/2020/03/3…

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By contrast, monopolists like Tyson are spending their money on full-page ads begging Trump for a bailout and for a legal get-out-of-jail-free card if their inadequate PPE kills their workers -- or their customers.

thehill.com/policy/healthc…

eof/