Essay on Farmland Industries Inc.

Industrialized agriculture and the methods of production are controlled, down to the tiniest detail, by food corporations. Norman Wirzba, notes that corporations have a large say in what animals a farmer raises, what crops he plants, what fertilizers he uses, and other small details (2004). Furthermore, enforcement of these methods is accomplished through contracts between the farmer and the corporation which guarantee that if the farmer follows what the corporation wants, the corporation will buy the goods he has produced. However, for those farmers who do not wish to enter into these contracts find that the market is

In the late nineteenth century shortly after the Civil War and Reconstruction, farmers in the Midwestern United States found themselves in quite a predicament. During the second industrial revolution of the United States that contained mass introduction of: railroads, oil, steel, and electricity, the risk-taking entrepreneurs of this era took an adventure into the world of cutthroat capitalism. In just a little time, a handful of monopolies arose in all these industries which hurt both the consumer of the product and the producer of the material (Doc. F). Because of the corrupt politicians in Washington DC, the absence of regulation on the monopolies put into place by bribes and greed or moderation from them, and the devious ways of the

In 2003, Producers Cooperative Association attended 9,591 cooperative members within their one hundred miles radius sales territory of Bryan, Texas. Producers had lead their peers in patrons’ capital where their member’s equity as at 2003 was 48.12% of total assets compared to the group average of only 30.55% and the revolving cycle of five-year was the shortest compared to the group average of 17.6 years. This cooperative diverse economy of feed, fertilizer fuel and agricultural supplies had manifested excellent performance than their peers as indicated by Producers’ higher gross margin of 18.69% of sales versus the group average of 16.55%.

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

In the movie “Food Inc” we saw how the food industry keeps their farmers under their control. Food incorporation sets new protocols that require the farmers to keep purchasing more on dept. As a result of loans and only $18,000 annually (Kenner) they are stuck in a hole that they can’t get out of. I find many things disturbing about this. First off, I find it disturbing that he picked a poorly educated farming area. It seems obvious that the farmers don’t know what they got into and don’t have any knownldge of how to get out. I find it an example of poor unionization within the small farmers that are to be blamed not the ones that find out how to exploit it (Kenner).

There are many small farms and farmers that cannot make a living today by growing and selling their beloved crops. In other words, when large agricultural crop producing competitor increasing in sales, it impacts the lives of famers and their farms in a negative manner. In the article Don’t Let Your Child Grow Up to Be a Farmer by Bren Smith, published in The New York Times in August 2014, Smith elaborates that “Nighty-one percent of all farms households rely on multiple sources of income”. Jim Rowe a local corn farmer just got done farming and placing his tools away in his shop. He then, travels home to clean up from a 9-hour day on the farm. After cleaning up Mr. Rowe is off to his second job as a UPS driver. It is important to realize;

How does the corporatization of farming affect all Americans, not just those living in rural areas?

The agriculture field is one of the biggest employers, employing over 155 million people in the United States. What do you think about when you hear the word “agriculture?” Many people would say farming, but this is not the most common occupation in this field. Farmers make up a fraction of the agricultural jobs at 900,000, but over 2.1 million people own, rent, and claim farming as a primary source of income. The average farm size has dropped from 460 acres in 1990 to 418 acres in 2007, while the average age of this occupation rose to 57, making this one of the older workforces in the United States.

For years, people have found many ways to develop their farms.Fazrmers have developed them from little feilds that can barley grow to hundreds of acres of fresh and fast growing crops. They have slowly figured out better ways to plant, grow, and harvest their feilds over the centuries.

Much like the manufacturing field, the U.S. farm population has declined and the average age of farmers continues to rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about sixty percent of the farmers in the

When Chuck Berrie was appointed CEO in 2003, his immediate priority was to discuss with the farmers whether or not a co-operative approach to managing the business was still an appropriate and preferred option. The CEO had previously spent six years working for another co-operative as Chief Marketing Officer at Welch Foods Inc. During those six years he had contributed to doubling the market share of the organisation. According to Berrie, ‘The beauty of being a co-op is not being judged by quarterly results, but by generations passing on to the next generation.’ Indeed, many Atlantic Quench farmers are third- and fourth-generation owners and one is seventh-generation.

In an increasingly globalized world, productivity and efficiency is crucial to the survival of agricultural businesses. Today, a smaller number of farms produce an increasingly larger amount of produce. Since 1920, the average farm size has grown over 300 percent (Ikred). Productivity is at an all time high, and in recent years the U.S. has had a “tremendous increase in international agricultural trade (Brown, 2011, p. 168).” For consumers around the world, this means cheaper, more accessible food, which is crucial for a rising world population with limited resources. However, the mid-size farmer is diminishing in number. We will look at what trends are causing the downfall of the mid-size farmer. What this means for rural communities, and whether or not these trends are inevitable.

Producers Cooperative serves 9,591 cooperative members within their one hundred miles radius sales territory of Bryan, Texas. Producers had lead their peers in patrons’ capital where their member’s equity as at 2003 was 48.12% of total assets compared to the group average of only 30.55% and the revolving cycle of five years was the shortest compared to the group average of 17.6 years. This cooperative diverse economy of feed, fertilizer fuel and agricultural supplies were also performing greater than their peers as indicated by Producers’ higher gross margin of 18.69 of sales versus the group average of 16.55%.

Large corporations are coming in and taking over the farming industry. They are making it almost impossible for small, family operated farms to survive. 'The six and a half million small farms of 1935 decreased to 575,000 by 1998? (Abbey, 2002). The large

Family farming and cooperative organizations are different in the way their profits are distributed. Academic theorists such as Grasson and Errington have differentiated family farms from cooperative farms on the basis of economic value returns such as the business