THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE FOOD SYSTEM IS A DANGER TO ALL AMERICANS Meeting the growing demand in grocery stores, wasting food and leaving shelves empty. Farmers saw prices fall even though food prices for consumers skyrocketed. That companies are not only passing on rising costs to consumers, but they are also filling their pockets in the process. Our country continues to face a worrying epidemic of obesity and diabetes.
Some signs suggest that these national health problems are due to declining food quality, especially processed foods. While increasing productivity, consolidation boosts the production of cheap and unhealthy foods that contribute to diet-related diseases. Consolidation makes it easier for any industry to maintain high prices. With few players, companies simply match each other's price increases instead of competing with them.
The food system has raised the costs of everything from breakfast cereals and coffee to beer. An official website of the United States government Official websites use. gov A. The gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
If you're still having problems, leave us your feedback. A website is never finished, it's always a work in progress, and your feedback will be useful to us as we move forward. Feeding America, a national network of food banks, estimates that up to 50 million people, including 17 million children, could currently be food insecure. Add to this a great deal of corporate control over the manufacture of food, and it is difficult to know exactly where the food actually comes from and who gets all the benefits of the price paid for that food.
When the American food system was dominated by smaller businesses, many of which were family-owned, there were many more slaughterhouses and local food processing facilities where farmers could bring their products. While it's not an exhaustive list, here are 10 reasons why consolidation, mergers and acquisitions are hurting the American food system. While the acquisition could be good for investors' pockets, it's a bad deal for people who invest in creating a more sustainable food system and for people who care about where their food comes from and how it's produced. While most farms in the United States are small, very few farms produce and consume most of the food produced and consumed in the country.
It has contributed to increasing food deserts and restricting access to food, increasing hospital and drug costs, and the current climate and biodiversity crises that are currently wreaking haVOC on the planet. Patel offers us a broad view of the global food industry and the all-encompassing machine industry, comprised of organizations such as the World Bank and the WTO, corporate lobbyists, government agencies and the all-powerful distribution networks.
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