Consolidation

The Issue

Farmland Consolidation

Government agriculture policies have historically favored large farms and continue to do so – a reflection of the farm interests powerful enough to play a role in the policy-making process. The trend toward larger and larger farms has accelerated since the 1950s with marked changes over the last 40 years, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, with the result that “large crop farms are getting larger, small crop farms are getting smaller, and midsize crop farms are disappearing.” Climate change and extreme weather events and other economic pressures on rural communities – many driven by consolidation and concentration in health care, retail and other sectors that serve these communities – make small and mid-size farms even more vulnerable to acquisition and absorption into larger farms. This means fewer farmers overall and fewer opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers and farmers of color.

Livestock, Agribusiness and Food System Concentration

Concentration plays out when a sector becomes so consolidated that there are only a few suppliers or buyers of a product. In the food system, the most blatant examples of concentration occur in the meat processing sector, where four companies control 67% of pork processing and 85% of beef processing. But concentration is also a factor in other sectors and at other points along the supply chain, such as institutional foodservice vendors. Workers in highly concentrated food system sectors have little power to demand proper working conditions and equitable treatment. Institutional buyers and retail consumers have little power to affect the prices in these sectors, and also bear the brunt of externalized costs for environmental and social harms caused by corporations who are not held accountable by current policies.

Dig Deeper

These resources are provided for information only; listing here does not imply an endorsement of any organization or its views by SAFSF.

• Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness (2023)
• Consolidation, Concentration and Competition in the Food System (2017)
• Bigger Farms, Bigger Problems
• The Food System: Concentration and Its Impacts
• U.S. Farm Programs: Eligibility and Payment Limits
• Corporate Consolidation of Farms and Water in the Western US
• Addressing Consolidation in Agriculture

Below is a listing of SAFSF programs and resources related to consolidation.