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to put up hay- there's a 365 day a year growing season... They don't have the same health requirements... We have to have standardization of health requirements." By his lights, therefore, the playing field is far from level for US and CAFTA and NAFTA countries.
Oligopolies
Another threat stacking the deck against smaller farms is the market-distorting impact of big agriculture trusts. While they have been big and powerful for a long time, their share of the pie and their influence has grown enormously in recent decades. According to the US Department of Agriculture, since 1980, the share of the market controlled by the top four meat packing companies has increased more than 30 percent to above 70 percent. Oligopolies like that haven't been seen since the early twentieth century era of big trusts, and the enactment of the first anti-trust laws.
"Our markets are packer controlled and supply and demand is broken. Producers are not being paid the true value of their cattle. The lack of competition and the use of captive supply cattle allow the processing industry to dictate price rather than negotiate price...some weeks, especially in a nervous market, 30 percent of the total cattle killed are pricing the remaining 70 percent,” explained Miller.
Tb help change this, Miller added. "Were working on a packer ban on livestock ownership. Tysons and other big packers have used captive supply to depress prices. They blackball farmers who cause trouble, and those farmers can't sell their cattle."
Wal-Mart
But big agriculture is only a piece of the puzzle. Miller believes "the real culprit in this
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