Report released on food system concentration and its impact

The Family Farm Action Alliance released a report Thursday it had commissioned titled “The Food System: Concentration and Its Impacts.”

The report was written by Mary Hendrickson of the University of Missouri, Philip Howard of Michigan State University, Emily Miller of the Family Farm Action Alliance and Douglas Constance of Sam Houston State University.

“This report is founded on the premise that monopolistic control is no longer about accumulating capital or profits, but rather amassing and protecting power,” the group said in a news release

It also contains proposals for decentralizing the agrifood system.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said in introductory remarks on a webinar, “Consolidation in our food system is a grave threat to our family farmers and rural communities, and this important new report from Dr. Hendrickson reinforces the urgent need for Congress to take action to address corporate concentration and create a food system that is rooted in fairness and opportunity for all.”

Hendrickson said, “Even with my years of examining consolidation in the food system, I am profoundly distressed by its ecological waste, the erosion of communities, and its callous treatment of human beings. Consciously or unconsciously, we have created this system and we can change it.”

–The Hagstrom Report