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Big Corporations Have An OVERWHELMING Amount Of Power Over Our Food Supply
theeconomiccollapseblog ^ | July 14, 2014 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 07/20/2014 11:26:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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To: Mad Dawgg
Your assertion is in direct opposition to the facts. People live longer today than they did just 50 years ago, and with a higher quality of life.

You are a food fetishist. Facts get in your way.

/johnny

61 posted on 07/20/2014 12:30:53 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: RIghtwardHo

“A corporation is answerable to NO ONE except stock holders. “

Who do these multi billion dollar fines I keep seeing in the news go to? It sure ain’t stockholders.


62 posted on 07/20/2014 12:35:41 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin
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To: SeekAndFind
What a bunch of crap. The food industry is one of the most fragmented in the country. Yes, there has been a lot of consolidation, because of the need to drive profits, but it remains one of the most competitive industries in our economy.

Anyone who thinks this nonsense is worthy of consideration should look at what it costs to feed a family these days, as a percentage of total family income, versus 30, 40, or 50 years ago. That fact should make you realize that this article is unmitigated garbage.

The author probably liked the anti-capitalist theme in the movie, Food Inc. and has a poster of Michael Moore on his wall.

63 posted on 07/20/2014 12:36:28 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Mad Dawgg
You will find the people who work in the FDA all have worked in the big food corps and vice versa.

Nonsense. The relationship between Big Food (and Big Pharma as well) and the FDA (r the USDA) is highly adversarial. It is no different with small food, small pharma, medium food and medium pharma.

You need more tin foil.

64 posted on 07/20/2014 12:39:36 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: SeekAndFind
i wonder how much of this is due to all the mom and pop farms being run out of business my the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT???

most of them can't afford a full time person to keep up with all the rules/regulations the seem to come out daily from unelected entities like the USDA/FDA/EPA/USDL/OSHA not to mention local/county/state edicts

65 posted on 07/20/2014 12:44:33 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: SeekAndFind
But as California’s drought deepens, some people in the area question how much water the plant is bottling and whether it’s right to sell water for profit in a desert region where springs are rare and underground aquifers have been declining.

"I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

66 posted on 07/20/2014 12:47:24 PM PDT by Zeppo ("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")
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To: Balding_Eagle
"Your post is that of a fool who knows nothing of farming."

I see.

Michael R. Taylor: Deputy Commissioner for Foods, Food and Drug Administration 1976, after passing the bar examination, Taylor became a staff attorney for the FDA, where he was executive assistant to the Commissioner.

1981 went to work at King & Spalding, a law firm, one client of which was the biotechnology company Monsanto,[3] where he established and led the firm's food and drug law practice.[

1991, Michael Taylor left King & Spalding, returning to the FDA to fill the newly created post of Deputy Commissioner for Policy. During that time, he signed the Federal Register notice stating that milk from cows treated with BGH did not have to be labeled as such.

1996 he moved to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he was Administrator of the Food Safety & Inspection Service.

2000 after briefly returning to King & Spalding, he then went to work for Monsanto as a Vice President for Public Policy.

2009, Taylor once again returned to government as Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner.[21] And on January 13, 2010, he was appointed to another newly created post at the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Foods

Michael A. Friedman, M.D. . . former acting commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Department of Health and Human Services . . .now senior vice-president for clinical affairs at G. D. Searle & Co., a pharmaceutical division of Monsanto Corporation.

Linda J. Fisher . . .former Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pollution Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances...now Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Monsanto Corporation.

Marcia Hale . . . former assistant to the President of the United States and director for intergovernmental affairs . . .now Director of International Government Affairs for Monsanto Corporation.

Michael (Mickey) Kantor. . . former Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce and former Trade Representative of the United States . . . now member of the board of directors of Monsanto Corporation.

Josh King . . . former director of production for White House events. . . now director of global communication in the Washington, D.C. office of Monsanto Corporation.

Terry Medley . . . former administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture, former chair and vice-chair of the United States Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Council, former member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food advisory committee...and now Director of Regulatory and External Affairs of Dupont Corporation's Agricultural Enterprise.

Margaret Miller . . . former chemical laboratory supervisor for Monsanto, . . .now Deputy Director of Human Food Safety and Consultative Services, New Animal Drug Evaluation Office, Center for Veterinary Medicine in the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

William D. Ruckelshaus . . . former chief administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), . .now (and for the past 12 years) a member of the board of directors of Monsanto Corporation.

Michael Taylor . . . former legal advisor to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Bureau of Medical Devices and Bureau of Foods, later executive assistant to the Commissioner of the FDA... still later a partner at the law firm of King & Spaulding where he supervised a nine-lawyer group whose clients included Monsanto Agricultural Company... still later Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the United States Food and Drug Administration, . . . and later with the law firm of King & Spaulding... now head of the Washington, D.C. office of Monsanto Corporation.

Lidia Watrud . . . former microbial biotechnology researcher at Monsanto Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, . . .now with the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Effects Laboratory, Western Ecology Division.

Jack Watson. . .former chief of staff to the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, . . .now a staff lawyer with Monsanto Corporation in Washington, D.C.

Clayton K. Yeutter . . . former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, former U.S. Trade Representative (who led the U.S. team in negotiating the U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement and helped launch the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations), now a member of the board of directors of Mycogen Corporation, whose majority owner is Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.

Larry Zeph . . . former biologist in the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, . . . now Regulatory Science Manager at Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

and the list goes on and on and on.

Now why did I post all of this? Because you see Big Agra and big Government are hopelessly intertwined. So you see when Big Government gives the average American Farmer problems it isn't because they just decided to do that out of the blue. They do so at the behest of Big Agra to help eliminate the competition.

Big Agra wants to make big bucks. If healthy food produced by average farmers makes people healthier and the word gets out Big Agra can get hammered by market forces they can't control. The worst thing to happen to big Agra is people and local farmers growing their own food and raising their own meat and dairy. That is why Big Government is hammering any farm operation that works to produce food that tries to use methods that does not require fertilizers and seeds and pesticides manufactured by Big Agra.

You see I live in a farm community and I know lots of farmers and they tell me what is going on they know the problem is that they government is in bed with big pharma.

67 posted on 07/20/2014 12:47:36 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Balding_Eagle
"Your words “Healthy people don’t need to take medicine...”"

Right so you are saying that your body is healthy... yet, you had your thyroid removed. The medicine you take is to replace the functions of the thyroid, thus your body needs the medicine to be healthy.

QED

68 posted on 07/20/2014 12:51:19 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: eddie willers

Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance Team America, and then Team America goes out... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money.

69 posted on 07/20/2014 12:52:19 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Borax Queen

Yes, but do they sell organic snake? An important question. ?..........


70 posted on 07/20/2014 12:57:24 PM PDT by Lakeshark
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To: Mase
"You need more tin foil."


71 posted on 07/20/2014 1:00:08 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Re:Now why did I post all of this? Because you see Big Agra and big Government are hopelessly intertwined. So you see when Big Government gives the average American Farmer problems it isn't because they just decided to do that out of the blue. They do so at the behest of Big Agra to help eliminate the competition.

There are posters here who seem to naively believe that Big Corporate would never decide it was easier to bribe, er make that influence, Big Government to enact regulations to suppress competition from small business and new business.
72 posted on 07/20/2014 1:09:20 PM PDT by khelus
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To: GladesGuru

The govt already controls the cherry industry. The govt decides the price and how much of what they grow can be sold.

Which is why much of the annual cherry production ends up in the garbage.


73 posted on 07/20/2014 1:12:27 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: dfwgator

There is no difference between the big corporations and big govt. Neither are answerable to the people.

Corporations don’t care if people are starving, they only care if they are making money.


74 posted on 07/20/2014 1:13:27 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

“Keep government out of it. Government is the cause of problems, not the solution.”

Trouble is these corporations aren’t the corner store, they are the multi-national most likely run by someone in India, Europe, or Asia.

The buy politicians on a daily basis. They hire ex-govt workers and their executives go to work in the govt agencies. The govt does the bidding of these companies.

They also control the market, deciding what goes into stores and what doesn’t for the vast majority of the population.


75 posted on 07/20/2014 1:17:49 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Look at the number of foods that have MSG in them. You know how scientists get fat mice to do studies on? They feed normal mice MSG.

Good grief, how do you manage to get out of bed in the morning possessing so much chemicalphobia? Your body, at any given time, probably has about 4 lbs. of glutamate in it. Without glutamate, your brain won't function and your central nervous system would never have developed. You consume 10 times more glutamate from natural sources than you do from added sources. Glutamate is found in nearly all foods. You can't avoid it. Yet here you are fearing something you eat every day.

Why is it the people who know the least about something are always the ones who fear it?

76 posted on 07/20/2014 1:21:36 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: driftdiver
Corporations don’t care if people are starving

Starving your customers isn't much of a business plan. The management would be replaced with management that keeps the customers paying. Can't make money without customers.

/johnny

77 posted on 07/20/2014 1:24:45 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: driftdiver
They also control the market, deciding what goes into stores and what doesn’t

The people decided that "New" Coke sucked, and they weren't going to buy it. Coca-Cola didn't try to keep selling it.

If people won't buy it, it won't make any money.

/johnny

78 posted on 07/20/2014 1:26:21 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: SeekAndFind

There used to be a packing plant in every other town and little feedlots and sale barns, the feds regulated them all out of business just like the corner gas station.

There are very few produce companies just a few very large cooperatives. They are the only ones who could take the hit if something happened and they got sued.

We used to have at least 10 chile canneries in the state and now there only 2, the largest owned by the Japanese. The little guy can’t make it. Regulation costs so much that only the large companies can afford it.


79 posted on 07/20/2014 1:30:56 PM PDT by tiki
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To: GeronL
After reading this article apparently it is best to always eat in a restaurant!

Most economic sectors have concentration ratios around 40%, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40% of the market. If the concentration ratio is above 40%, experts believe competition can be threatened and market abuses are more likely to occur: the higher the number, the bigger the threat.

On the restaurant side, the ten largest fast food corporations account for 47 percent of all fast food sales, and the love affair that Americans have with fast food does not appear to be in danger of ending any time soon.

80 posted on 07/20/2014 1:32:37 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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