Fw: Deadline today: End Corporate Ag's Monopolies

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nancy j

I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth! Job 19:25Subject: Deadline tomorrow: End Corporate Ag's MonopoliesTo: "" Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 11:25 AM

Breakup Corporate Ag's Monopolies Today

Tell the DOJ and USDA to investigate excessive concentration in agriculture

Dear ,

End the corporate stranglehold on our food and America's farmers.

Whenever power is concentrated in the hands of a few, abuses inevitably occur. For the past several decades, multinational

food conglomerates have been allowed to merge until only a handful of companies control our food supply. These companies have used their excessive market concentration to cheat farmers from receiving fair prices; unfairly raise production costs; manipulate the price of food and run roughshod over our nation’s environmental and labor laws.

In 2010, the Department of Justice and USDA

will hold a series of joint workshops to investigate the “dynamics of competition in agriculture markets including lack of buyer power and vertical integration.â€1 The public comment period ends Thursday Dec. 31, 2009, so you must act today.

This is a historic opportunity to support the Obama administration

as they go forward to level the playing field for family farmers,

consumers and all Americans. It's important that the voices of the sustainable food and agriculture community are heard.

Sign this petition today to to tell the Obama Administration to breakup the unfair monopolies of

agriculture giants: Monsanto, field, Tyson and Cargill, among

others.

For years the Department of Justice has blindly looked the other way while merger after merger in the food and agricultural sectors has consolidated market share and power into the hands of only a few giant multinational corporations.

Today only a handful of companies control our food supply:

• 1 company (Monsanto) controls the seeds of 93% of soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the U.S.2

• 4 companies (Tyson, Cargill, Swift & National Beef Packing Co.) control 83% of the beef packing industry

• 4 companies (field, Tyson, Swift & Cargill) control 66% of the pork packing industry

It’s time to send a message to Washington and Wall Street, that the rights of farmers, citizens and consumers matter more than adding to the already bloated bottom line of vertically integrated companies.

Sign here today to encourage the DOJ and USDA

to enforce antitrust legislation and give farmers a chance and restore competition in agriculture and rebuild our democracy with a stronger vision of fairness and equality.

As always, we appreciate your support.

Yours,

Dave, and The Food Democracy Now! Team

If you'd like to see Food Democracy Now!'s grassroots work continue, please consider donating as little as $10 or $25.

Sources:

1. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, Public Workshops,

Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy

http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/94?akid=58.85009.OFJaFx & t=8

2. Monsanto’s dominance draws antitrust inquiry, Patented seeds are go-to for farmers, who decry their fast-growing price, The Washington Post, November 29, 2009

http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/95?akid=58.85009.OFJaFx & t=9

3. 2007 Concentration of Agricultural Markets report, compiled by Hendrickson and Heffernan of University of Missouri Department of Rural Sociology.

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