Federal regulators launch probe of big agriculture

[HopeHoops]

Source: AP via Yahoo! News

ST. LOUIS – Some Obama administration officials have made clear their unease with the increasing control a handful of corporations have over the nation's food supply, and this week in Iowa they could show whether they are serious about changing the system.

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Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, came into office last spring complaining that regulators have been too slow to file cases and that the Bush administration's guidelines on enforcement had fostered "extreme hesitancy" in the department.

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The series of workshops will run through December, looking at the seed, dairy, poultry, beef and crop industries. At issue will be the practices of industrial agriculture's biggest players, such as grain processors Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc., meat companies Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA and biotech seed firms Monsanto Co. and DuPont.

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With so few companies given so much power, Heffernan contends they don't need to cut backroom deals to control the market. They just follow each others' lead on how much to pay for grain or animals and force farmers to take what they can get.

"They don't have to go down to the lounge and talk about price fixing," he said.

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Much more at link.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100308/ap_on_bi_ge/us_food_and_farm_agriculture_antitrust;_ylt=AqpW7ltFLceSVvlnmtcwpyms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTRhbjdvcW1zBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzA4L3VzX2Zvb2RfYW5kX2Zhcm1fYWdyaWN1bHR1cmVfYW50aXRydXN0BGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MD

[SpiralHawk]

1. Big Farm (R) -- like Big Chem, Big Pharma, Big Finance, and Big Whatever (R)

has demonstrated nothing but greed and reckless disregard for human beings (so-called consumers) and the natural world. They deserve to be taken to the woodshed.

[No Elephants]

2. Does this mean Big Food has been too stingy about campaign contributions?

Come on, don't let Big Finance and Big Health do all the work for ya! Contribute your fair share and you, too, may receive a bailout.

[Luciferous]

3. +1

[Donnachaidh]

4. LOL -- no kidding.

We'll know the coffers are filling up when the findings come back as *fine*.

[Dr.Phool]

5. How do you kick and rec a reply?

That deserves one.

[harun]

6. Maybe they should have though about that before allowing them

to buy every small ag business on Earth. These purchases do need to be approved.

I am betting the next purchase Monsanto makes to get "bigger" will be quickly approved.

[Supersedeas]

7. the oligarchy will not like this much

[wordpix]

8. Big Ag controls it all until slapped with an investigation/lawsuit, like Perdue's re Chesapeake Bay

pollution. Now they claim the shit is not theirs and they're not responsible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030202408.html

MD DEP is claiming the pollution is not caused by chicken shit but by human sewage sludge. Hey, it's shit and it should be controlled from these Perdue farms, whatever it is.

:grr: