Wenonah Hauter - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America

The Battle Over the Future of
Food and Farming in America

Wenonah Hauter

2012 by Wenonah Hauter

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No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission
from the publisher.

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Chapter 3 draws from the 2012 Food & Water Watch report Why Walmart Cant Fix the Food System.

Chapter 4 draws from the 2011 Food & Water Watch report A Decade of Dangerous Food Imports from China.

Chapters 8, 9, and 10 draw from the 2010 Food & Water Watch report Factory Farm Nation: How America Turned Its Livestock Farms into Factories.

Chapter 9 draws from the 2008 Food & Water Watch report The Trouble with Smithfield: A Company Profile.

Chapter 13 draws from the 2012 Food & Water Watch report Genetically Engineered Foods: An Overview.

Chapter 16 draws from the 2012 Food & Water Watch report Farm Bill 101.

Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2012

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Hauter, Wenonah.

Foodopoly : the battle over the future of food and farming in America / Wenonah Hauter.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59558-794-7 (e-book)

1. Food supplyUnited States. 2. Agricultural industriesUnited States. 3. AgricultureEconomic aspectsUnited States. I. Title. II. Title: Battle over the future of food and farming in America.

HD9005.H358 2012

338.10973dc23 2012025605

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Composition by dix!

This book was set in Minion

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to
family farm defenders who steward the land and fight for justice.

So many people have helped make this book possible.

I could never have completed Foodopoly without the help of my really smart, talented, and wonderful research assistant, Lily Boyce. She was always cheerful and efficient, spent months creating the charts and graphics featured in this book, and helped tirelessly with research. Lily is a star!

I want to acknowledge and thank the extraordinary staff of Food & Water Watch. I owe an intellectual debt to Patrick Woodall, our brilliant and talented research director, for his deep thinking, number crunching, and research, and for being a patient and supportive sounding board as I struggled through the complex web of issues that have created the dysfunctional food system. A special thanks to Patty Lovera, director of the food program, who is incredibly knowledgeable on a broad range of issues, and who helped tremendously with many aspects of this project. Many thanks to Darcey Rakestraw, communications director, who was enormously supportive in so many ways during this project, including helping with editing. I am grateful to Lisa Mastny, who was extremely helpful with editing and with suggestions for clarity, making this dense material more readable. My colleague Lane Brooks, the chief operating officer, took over many of my duties and responsibilities as I wrote this book. I am forever thankful to him for his good judgment and for being a calm, dependable, and good-humored partner in running Food & Water Watch.

I greatly appreciate the wonderful Food & Water Watch staff, who provided research and technical support, covered for me during this long project, and offered endless moral support: Sarah Alexander, Dave Andrews, Sarah Borron, Royelen Boykie, Jon Brown, Tony Corbo, Zach Corrigan, Scott Edwards, Noelle Ferdon, Clay Gatewood, Anna Ghosh, Kim Girton, Mitch Jones, Doug Lakey, Michele Merkel, Eve Mitchell, Rachel Nissley, Darcey OCallaghan, Matt Ohloff, Genna Reed, Mark Schlosberg, Ben Schumin, Tim Schwab, Adam Scow, Tyler Shannon, Elanor Starmer, Yi Wang, Anna Witowaska, Emily Wurth, Gabriella Zanzanaini, and Ron Zucker.

I am deeply grateful to Helaine and Sid Lerner for their confidence in and encouragement and support for this project. I can truly say that without their dedication to the creation of a better food system, this book would never have been written and so much important work would never be done. A special thanks to GRACE Communications Foundation for ongoing support and assistance with so many areas of my work: Scott Cullen; Leslie Hatfield; Lisa Kleger; Destin Layne; and the staff of the Eat Well Guide, the Meatrix, and Sustainable Table. I am so appreciative of the support and encouragement from Joan and Bob Rechnitz, who have had the great foresight to understand that nature should not be financialized and that extreme forms of energy threaten our food and water.

This book would not have been possible without the knowledge and perspectives of the many people that I interviewed and provided material for the book. I am indebted to the following people for taking the time to speak with me and provide valuable insight and information: Mark Arax, John Bunting, Ben Burkett, Mike Callicrate, Lloyd Carter, Dale Coke, Joaquin Contente, Roberta Cook, Agatha DEsterhazy, Cap Dierks, Diane Endicott, Hugh Espey, Larry Ginter, Joel Greeno, Andrew Gunther, Sean Hallahan, Kyal Hamilton, John Hansen, Michael Hansen, Diane Hatz, Gary Hoskey, Frederick Kaufman, Kurt Kelsey, Robby Kenner, Kendra Kimbirauskas, John Kinsman, Garry Klicker, Judy Labelle, Anna Lapp, Dr. Robert Lawrence, Ray Leon, Scott Marlow, Michael Masters, Mas Masumoto, Larry Mitchell, Carole Morrison, Dr. Keeve Nachmann, George Naylor, Dr. Marion Nestle, Felicia Nestor, Harvey Nijjer, Kathy Ozer, Stan Painter, Rhonda Perry, Michael Pertschuk, Chris Peterson, Dr. Daryll Ray, Matt Rogers, Valerie Ruddle, Rebecca Spector, Steven Stoll, Dr. Robert Taylor, Warren Taylor, Bruce von Stein, Lori Wallach, Dr. David Wallinga, Mike Weaver, Tom Willey, Brad Wilson, Donna Winburn, and Mark Winne.

I am extremely grateful to Marc Favreau, my editor at The New Press, for having the confidence in this project and for helping me every step of the way. I am so very fortunate to have had Marc shepherding this project. His patience and understanding have made this experience a pleasure. Thank you also to my production editor, Sarah Fan, who along with Marc provided an experienced eye with editing and made this a much better book than it would have been otherwise. I am grateful to Rachel Burd for the thorough and painstaking copyediting. Thank you also to Azzurra Cox and all of the other helpful staff of The New Press.

Many thanks to my dear friend and colleague Maude Barlow, who saw the value of this book when it was just an idea and who helped make it possible with important introductions and ongoing moral support when the going got tough. I appreciate the advice, positive reinforcement, and camaraderie of my colleague and dear friend Lisa Shubert, who was always available with a kind word.

I am fortunate to have been trained by the brilliant organizers of the Midwest Academy, who taught me that the only way we can bring about long-term progressive change is by building political power, and that it takes a long-term grassroots organizing strategy. I owe Steve Max, Jackie Kendall, and David Hunt a deep debt of gratitude for years of organizing mentoring.