Agriculture Consolidation Data Hub

Our food system is in crisis. Unprecedented consolidation across the food and agriculture system is harming every American as a handful of corporations amass more power and profits off the backs of everyone else.

Whether you’re a farmer getting squeezed, a consumer getting price gouged, or a policymaker looking for solutions, you’re in the right place. Explore Farm Action’s agriculture consolidation data hub to learn more about the state of concentration in our food system, why it matters, and how to reform it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIVE INTO THE DATA

Our Food System: The Basics

How does food get from the farm to our tables? After decades of consolidation, the answer might surprise you. Today, a handful of powerful corporations are deciding who farms, what they farm, and who gets to eat. Our primer explains how we got here. Click below to learn more.

The Latest Statistics: Food and Agriculture Concentration

Decades of mergers have concentrated power into the hands of just a few dominant corporations, crushing competition across food and agriculture markets.

Economists find that market abuses — such as price fixing, price gouging, and wage fixing — are likely to occur when the concentration ratio of the top four firms (CR4) exceeds 40%. Concentration levels surpass that percentage in almost every food and agriculture sector, from seeds, to agricultural equipment, to meat processing. Click below to see the sector-by-sector data.

Digging Deeper: Fact Sheets by Industry

Learn more about the history and impact of consolidation in each industry with our easy to follow fact sheets.

AGRICULTURAL FINANCE INDUSTRY
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CROP INSURANCE INDUSTRY
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FARM MACHINERY INDUSTRY
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FERTILIZER INDUSTRY
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GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY
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FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRY
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LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY INDUSTRY
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SEED AND PESTICIDE INDUSTRY

New Report: “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System

Our report provides definitive evidence of corporate control over who gets to farm, how they farm, what food gets produced and sold in this country, and how much consumers must pay for it.

This landmark investigation details the policy choices and corporate actions that got us here by diving into the history of antimonopoly policy in American agriculture and conducting in-depth investigations into each major sector of today’s agricultural economy.

Around three dozen corporations now dictate the lines of development and terms of trade for almost every industry involved in the growing, processing, and distribution of food in America. Decades of lax antitrust enforcement have culminated in these unprecedented levels of concentration. Meanwhile, corporations rake in record profits, farmers and workers get squeezed, and consumers pay the price at the grocery store. As the report shows, however, America has been here before, and it was government regulation of monopolies that freed farmers, workers, and consumers from corporate control. Today, we have reached a critical point where such enforcement and regulation are once again necessary.

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Help fund our fight to create a food system that works for everyone, not just a handful of powerful corporations.

IMPACTS OF CONSOLIDATION

Price Gouging Case Studies

Farm Action has been a leader in exposing corporate price gouging across the food and farm system. Below are just three examples of price gouging, and what we’re doing about it.

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Stop the Fertilizer Price Hikes

Months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fertilizer prices spiked to all-time highs. When we looked into it, we found that fertilizer corporations’ own financial statements disproved their excuses about higher costs and supply chain issues.

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On-the-Ground Impacts of a Consolidated Food System

Ten people from across the food supply chain share their first-person accounts of what it’s like to live, work, and try to earn a fair wage in our consolidated food and agriculture system.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Foreign, Corporate, and Billionaire Farmland Ownership

As farmers are driven off their land, it opens the door for investors — domestic and foreign alike — to snap up farmland. Millions of acres of farmland are now in the hands of investors, driving up prices up for everyone else and creating an entry barrier for new farmers. These investors then extract natural resources from rural communities and transfer that wealth to their shareholders. Learn more about the harms of foreign, corporate, and billionaire farmland ownership below.

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Foreign Corporate Farmland Ownership Explained

As of late 2019, foreign investors have held an interest in almost 35.2 million acres of U.S. farmland. That’s an area larger than the state of New York. In the past 17 years alone, foreign farmland holdings have doubled in the U.S. and the trend is showing no signs of slowing.

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The Feed-Meat Complex

In this must-read piece, we reveal how Big Ag corporations pocket billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies.

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Mergers We're Watching

Farm Action is standing guard as corporations plan mergers and acquisitions to tighten their grip on our food system by calling attention to the impacts of their plans, providing input to federal regulators, and rallying public opposition.

USDA Farmer Fairness Portal

The U.S. has laws in place to protect producers and food system workers from abusive corporate power. You can file a complaint or tip if you suspect a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act or any other federal law governing fair and competitive marketing and contract growing of livestock and poultry.