How Corporate Agriculture Is Crushing Family Farms

The American family farm is dying — and it's not an accident.

Over the past four decades, the number of farms in the United States has dropped by more than a third. The farms that remain are increasingly controlled by massive corporations. Four companies now control over 80% of beef processing. Four companies control over 60% of pork processing. Seed and chemical monopolies like Bayer-Monsanto dictate what farmers can plant and how much they pay.

The Contract Trap

Poultry farmers are forced into "tournament systems" where companies like Tyson and Perdue pit farmers against each other. Farmers take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to build chicken houses to company specifications, only to find their pay docked for arbitrary reasons. If they speak out, they lose their contracts and are left with nothing but debt.

Land Prices and Corporate Buyers

Wall Street investment firms have poured billions into buying American farmland, driving prices to levels that make it impossible for young farmers to get started. Bill Gates alone owns over 270,000 acres. Foreign investors and pension funds are gobbling up land that communities depend on.

The Human Cost

Rural communities are hollowing out. Main streets are boarded up. Schools are closing. Hospitals are shutting down. The wealth that was once distributed across thousands of family farms is now concentrated in the hands of a few corporate executives and shareholders who have never set foot on a farm.

This isn't the free market at work. It's a system rigged by lobbying, consolidated market power, and government policies written by and for the biggest players in agriculture.