Top three reasons you should meet Wenonah
Foodopoly, a book written by Food & Water Watch director and activist Wenonah Hauter, presents the shocking account of how our food system has been hijacked by corporate power, and how family farmers are driven out by international corporations such as Cargill, Tyson, Kraft, and ConAgra.
We're living in a Foodopoly. Don't believe us? Here's what Wenonah tells us:
Twenty food corporations produce most of the food Americans eat - even your favorite organic brands. Four large chains, including Walmart, control more than half of all grocery store sales. One company dominates the organic grocery industry, and one distribution company has a stranglehold on getting organic products into communities around the country. Four companies control 80% of all US cattle, and four companies control 66% of all US hogs.
2/3 of all farms earn under $10,000 per year, and a mid-size farm earns on average just $19,277 per year - our grocery dollars aren't going to farmers. Poultry farmers, for example, receive just 25 cents for a $19 bucket of KFC chicken. Rural communities are seeing the wealth and the profit from agriculture sucked into the bottom lines of the largest food corporations in the world.
The biotechnology industry has become so powerful that it can buy public policy; scientists have been allowed to move forward without regulation, and they are now manipulating the genomes of all living things-microorganisms, seeds, fish, and animals. This has enabled corporations to gain control over the basic building blocks of life, threatening the integrity of our global genetic commons and our collective food security. Biotechnology has moved into the world of science fiction, as scientists actually seek to create life-forms and commercialize them.Want to do something about it?