An oligopoly industry is a market in which few firms have control over a market supply. The characteristics of an oligopoly market structure are the firms have barriers to entry and exit the market, the market is shared by few large competitors, and the firms sell differentiated products. However, in oligopoly, other competitors may enter and operate in the market.
In the article “Choice at the Supermarket: Is Our Food System the Perfect Oligopoly?” written by Aman Singh, discusses how few multinational firms stack up our food supply in the supermarkets. Consumers need to buy food conveniently and cheaply in order to live; nevertheless, the food supply is controlled by few corporations and the consumer don't have many options. Even though
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The five companies the article is referring to are Albertsons LLC, Costco, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize, Walmart, and Super Valu Inc ("List of supermarket chains in the United States", n.d). These corporations operate throughout the USA with different names and logos. Furthermore, the suppliers to these five multinationals are also linked to these chains of supermarkets. For example, “79 percent of our beef, 65 percent of our pork, and 57 percent of our poultry” is supplied by Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and Smithfield. Besides, Smithfield owns all the bacon brands such as Armour, Eckrich, Farmland, Gwaltney, John Morrell, a Smithfield (Singh, 2012). Farmers who raise cattle, hogs, and poultry are also strictly controlled by these large corporations. Practically, the small farmers are only workers for these corporations because they have to follow the company guidelines and produce as cheaply as possible. For instance, the production of chicken in the United States is produced under “contracts to a handful of companies, who own the birds from egg to supermarket” (Singh, 2012. Finally, the food market is consolidated in the hands of few multinational
companies struggle to maintain their autonomy in the food chain and inform what kind of
Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.
Moreover, this system of mass farming leads to single crop farms, which are ecologically unsafe, and the unnatural treatment of animals (Kingsolver 14). These facts are presented to force the reader to consider their own actions when purchasing their own food because of the huge economic impact that their purchases can have. Kingsolver demonstrates this impact by stating that “every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we
...in the market. Diversified mid-sized family farms used to produce most of our meat, but now, only a few companies control the livestock industry. This has resulted in driving family farmers out of the market and replacing them with massive confined feeding operations that subject the animals to terrible living conditions that subject our food to contamination. Major food corporations are only concerned with minimizing overhead in order to deliver the consumer cheap food, regardless of the health implications.
Nestle, Marion. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
“We cannot be free if our food sources are controlled by someone else” (2). Berry argues that the average consumer buys food without question. That we depend on commercial suppliers, we are influenced by advertisements we see on TV and that interfere with our food choices. We buy what other people want us to buy. We have been controlled by the food industry, and regard eating as just something required for our survival.
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
Just as Pollan mentions, the industries profit from people making poor choices. One of which is choosing processed foods over whole foods. Given the environment people live in, it is difficult to make healthier choices because processed foods, such as canned or frozen fruits and vegetables, packaged foods, fortified foods, and easy-to-prepare foods, constitutes of more than 75% of foods in grocery stores. Foods that go through such processing lose many of their nutritional values, while industries themselves believe that by processing food they are actually trying to preserve its nutrients and freshness. The public falls for this
Topic A (oligopoly) - "The ' An oligopoly is defined as "a market structure in which only a few sellers offer similar or identical products" (Gans, King and Mankiw 1999, pp.-334). Since there are only a few sellers, the actions of any one firm in an oligopolistic market can have a large impact on the profits of all the other firms. Due to this, all the firms in an oligopolistic market are interdependent on one another. This relationship between the few sellers is what differentiates oligopolies from perfect competition and monopolies.
Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,
This organization belongs to the oligopoly market structure. The oligopoly market structure involves a few sellers of a standardized or differentiated product, a homogenous oligopoly or a differentiated oligopoly (McConnell, 2004, p. 467). In an oligopolistic market each firm is affected by the decisions of the other firms in the industry in determining their price and output (McConnell, 2005, P.413). Another factor of an oligopolistic market is the conditions of entry. In an oligopoly, there are significant barriers to entry into the market. These barriers exist because in these industries, three or four firms may have sufficient sales to achieve economies of scale, making the smaller firms would not be able to survive against the larger companies that control the industry (McConnell, 2005, p.
In the United States, Food is one of the basic needs of life.We tend to spend tons of money every year to buy food. Consuming food reflects America’s culture in the United States. In America, Fast food is a way to enjoy delicious food made with sugar, fat and salt. It’s impossible to back away from eating good tasting food. Unfortunately, this is leading to major destruction. In the human life, food procurement, preparation, and consumption have devoted to an art form.Spite the terms of “America has a food problem,” it shows that our nation is unable to produce and supply safe, nutritious food in a way where it sustains our global population. Health Issues are a result of over consumption, which lead to portion sizes, and food production.
American citizens economic standing plays a role in the what foods they buy, where they buy, and their accessibility to buy. According to the United States Department of Agriculture an estimated twenty-three and a half million people live in a “food desert”. which is an urban or rural community that has little to no access to fresh food distributors such as a supermarket or farmers market. A lot of times these communities only food options are convenience stores and fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds and 7-Eleven, that...
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...
The. An oligopoly is a market structure characterised by few firms and many buyers, homogenous or differentiated products and also difficult market entry (Pass et al. 2000) an example of an oligopoly would be the fast food industry where there is a few firms such as McDonalds, Burger King and KFC that all compete for a greater market share. In a Monopoly, there is one firm that controls the market, and there are no similar products being sold by other companies. Advertising is therefore used to encourage people to buy more of their product. In a monopoly there is a downward sloping demand curve, the reason for this is that a firm must lower the price to sell an extra unit of their product.