8 Forces Driving More
Yet none of that compared to the power of agribusiness and politi-
cal spin.
At one time, Americans could distinguish between competitive
markets and monopoly power—the former bolsters independence and
opportunity, the later rewards control and avarice. Yet today, the lines
have blurred and the values that once guided markets are on life support.
What remains are contracts written by companies and enforced, if need
be, by the government.
Dominance of the food system is not limited to meat and seeds. In
seventeen of nineteen categories such as processing milk, milling flour,
or refining sugar, the top four companies control from 46 to 95 percent
of the market. In nine of the seventeen categories, market dominance
exceeds 70 percent. At the global level, the top four companies in crop
seeds, agricultural chemicals, animal health, animal breeding, and farm
machinery control more than half of each market.
On the supermarket retail side of the food system, more than half
( 54 percent) is dominated by four companies, with Walmart control-
ling one-third of the entire market. Consolidation across retail pro-
duct categories continues. As examples, Tyson Foods owns thirty-eight
brands, while Smithfield Foods has at least fourteen core brands.
Each time I come across the Farmland logo, my mind takes me back
to the moment the company president rolled it out. Those were desper-
ate times—whether a farmer-owned company could withstand growing
market control was an open question. The new logo embodied the hope
of surviving an onslaught of monopoly power. But it was not to be.
Counting Smithfield Foods’ purchase of Farmland’s pork divi-
sion, Smithfield now controls 7 percent of the retail pork market.
The consolidation has continued. In 0 , in what was the largest-ever
acquisition of a United States company by a Chinese business, Smith-
field Foods was purchased by Shuanghui International Holdings. The
United States government registered no opposition.
One American firm that supported the Chinese buyout was Goldman
Sachs, an investment bank that held shares in Smithfield Foods and
stood to make tens of millions of dollars in advising the company—until