Agriculture: Not just your mom-and-pop farm Part II

And the weird thing is that in our farm industry, a lot of the major crops that we grow here in the U.S. are for exporting purposes or for cattle feed/industrial use.

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/cropmajor.html
We happen to grow (taken from EPA website linked above):


Corn: According to the National Corn Growers Association, about eighty percent of all corn grown in the U.S. is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry, and fish production. In 2000, the U.S. produced almost ten billion bushels of the world’s total 23 billion bushel crop. About 12% of the U.S. corn crop ends up in foods that are either consumed directly (e.g. corn chips) or indirectly (e.g. high fructose corn syrup). It also has a wide array of industrial uses including ethanol, a popular oxygenate in cleaner burning auto fuels.


Soybeans: Approximately 2.8 billion bushels of soybeans were harvested from almost 73 million acres of cropland in the U.S. in 2000. Over 350,000 farms in the United States produce soybeans, accounting for over 50% of the world’s soybean production and $6.66 billion in soybean and product exports in 2000.


Hay: Hay production in the United States exceeds 150 million tons per year. Alfalfa is the primary hay crop grown in this country. U.S. hay is produced mainly for domestic consumption although there is a growing export market.


Wheat: The U.S. produces about 13% of the world’s wheat and supplies about 25% of the world’s wheat export market. About two-thirds of total U.S. wheat production comes from the Great Plains (from Texas to Montana).


Cotton: The nation’s cotton farmers harvest about 17 million bales or 7.2 billion pounds of cotton each year. Over 60% of the annual cotton crop goes into apparel, 28 percent into home furnishings, and 8 percent into industrial products each year.


Rice: U.S. rice production accounts for just over 1% of the world’s total, but this country is the second leading rice exporter with 18% of the world market.


Grain Sorghum: The U.S. exports almost half of the sorghum it produces and controls 70% to 80% of world sorghum exports.

Clearly the U.S has a monopoly in parts of the global agribiz. Like the mother Jones article referenced above, the Agri lobby is tough:
“In other words, by throwing their considerable weight around, the Ag lobby can smash political crockery halfway across the world. But they have more subtle ways of showing their strength, too. Back in July, for example, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) put a hold on Thomas Shannon, President Obama's nominee for ambassador to Brazil. There was no question about Shannon's qualifications, only about his fealty to the corn lobby: In his confirmation hearings, Shannon had the gall to suggest that eliminating import tariffs on sugar-based ethanol (mostly from Brazil) might be "beneficial." Which it would be, since sugar ethanol is both cheaper and more environmentally friendly than domestic corn ethanol.
But those are fighting words in the Corn Belt, and Grassley lifted his hold only after the White House rolled over and reassured him in writing that the ethanol tariff wouldn't be touched. They understood the score: Don't mess with the Ag lobby. Not even a little bit.”
To me, this seems like a continuation of American big business. Although there are little farmers in the mix, ag business is dominated by corporations who have the money, the political clout, and obviously, no shame. It reminds me of the British Empire, when it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire due to their numerous colonial holdings. The U.S. government was divided into the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive branch, all with a set of checks and balances so any one branch would not become more powerful than the others. In my mind, I think this is what needs to happen to the agriculture business. For example, take the recent stock market crash on Wall Street. Look at Enron, the Lehman Brothers, Bernie Madoff, etc. All of those companies were considered too big to fail; all of them had a virtual monopoly over the financial market, a market that ignored Main Street and the average Joe. They failed and immediately, everyone cried and blamed so-and-so for not doing or doing this and that. In reality, they ignored the fact that there hadn’t been any regulations, any caps on the financial industrial at a federal/national level. And the same thing needs to happen to the U.S. Agriculture business. It is not right that major Agriculture companies have the power to force out small farmers, establish monopolies halfway around the world. No wonder smaller, 3rd world developing countries can’t get a foothold in the international agriculture market because of monopolies; and we continue to wonder why they remain poor and developing. I know life is not fair but we should not have to live with this reality. I should do a special on Monsanto, as I hear it is the particular evil in the agribiz, much like the IMF and the World Bank are wolves in sheep’s clothing.