It’s no longer a surprise that the giant multibillion dollar agribusinesses are destroying the local and organic farms in America and replacing a huge portion of our food supply with factory farms that are based outside this country. Most of the small traditional American farms are now destroyed by consolidation of larger land holders and the US government supports these predatorial corporations by allowing them to have monopolies and crush all the other competitors. One of these giant corporations that control most of our food supply happens to be Monsanto. Monsanto has been suing many organic farmers and local food producers and forcing them to purchase Monsanto’s Franken seeds every year. , four major biotech and chemical companies are now in charge of 80% of cows, 60% of pigs and 50% of chickens processed in US. Even many organic companies have been pushed out of business and in fact, corporations like ConAgra, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Kraft and M&M Mars own most of the US organic industry.
, “90 percent of America’s vitamin C supplements, 70% of U.S apple juice, and 78% of the tilapia consumed in this country comes directly from China”. Due to corruption in governmental regulatory agencies like FDA and USDA ( controlled and run by biotech companies like Monsanto and DuPont), only 1% to 2% of foods that contain high levels of chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics and heavy metals imported from China go through proper inspection. That’s why foods like rice and honey has high levels of contaminants in them. As a matter of fact, Wal-Mart has crushed thousands of small businesses and food manufacturers in US and destroyed tens and thousands of jobs in order to maximize the profit by importing cheap foods and goods from China. Thanks for America’s love for cheap goods and services, Wal-Mart now sells five times more stuff than any other retail store in US. A big portion of goods sold in Wal-Mart are not made in US and that has cost US economy, countless number of jobs and removed fair competitive environment.
Cutting costs by any means necessary (like exporting jobs to overseas and cutting all the benefits for employees) are top priorities of this predator company. The ruthless policies and monopoly of Wal-Mart have made Wal-Mart too big to fail. In fact, Michael Moore in his documentary called “Capitalism the love story” reveals how companies like Wal-Mart use dead peasant life insurance policies to even benefit from the death of their employees. , here are some more facts about Wal-Mart: #1 An average U.S. family now spends more than $4000 a year at Wal-Mart. #2 In 2010, Wal-Mart had revenues of 421 billion dollars. That amount was greater than the GDP of 170 different countries including Norway, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates. #3 If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have the 23rd largest GDP in the world. #4 Wal-Mart now sells more groceries than anyone else in America does. In the United States today, one out of every four grocery dollars is spent at Wal-Mart.
#5 Amazingly, 100 million customers shop at Wal-Mart every single week. #6 Wal-Mart has opened more than 1,100 "supercenters" since 2005 alone. #7 Today, Wal-Mart has more than 2 million employees. #8 If Wal-Mart was an army, it would be the second largest military on the planet behind China. #9 Wal-Mart is the largest employer in 25 different U.S. states. #10 According to the Economic Policy Institute, trade between Wal-Mart and China resulted in the loss of 133,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2006. #11 The CEO of Wal-Mart makes more in a single hour than a full-time Wal-Mart associate makes in an entire year. #12 Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart employees and their children are enrolled in Medicaid and are dependent on the government for healthcare. #13 Between 2001 and 2007, the value of products that Wal-Mart imported from China grew from $9 billion to $27 billion. #14 Amazingly, 96 percent of all Americans now live within 20 miles of a Wal-Mart.
#15 The number of "independent retailers" in the United States declined by 60,000 between 1992 and 2007. #16 According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wal-Mart spent 7.8 million dollars on political lobbying during 2011. That number does not even include campaign contributions. #17 Today, Wal-Mart has five times the sales of the second largest U.S. retailer (Costco). #18 The combined net worth of six members of the Walton family is roughly equal to the combined net worth of the poorest 30 percent of all Americans. As a matter of fact, giant corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, Wal-Mart, GE and Comcast are not just above the law, they are the law. They have legislators in the back of their pockets to write laws in their favors and are granted government monopoly, so no other small businesses or manufacturers could be able to compete with them. The policies and unfair practices of these giant corporations are driving our country into another recession and in fact, 50% of Americans are now officially poor, while 100 million Americans live on food stamps.
The bottom middle class are the new poor and the money from upper middle class is sucked right back up to the top 1%. Just in the last three years of recovery, 95% of income gains have gone to the top 1%. According to Important inequality update from Emmanuel Saez: “Top 1% incomes grew by 31.4% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.4% from 2009 to 2012. Hence, the top 1% captured 95% of the income gains in the first three years of the recovery. From 2009 to 2010, top 1% grew fast and then stagnated from 2010 to 2011. Bottom 99% stagnated both from 2009 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2011. In 2012, top 1% incomes increased sharply by 19.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 1.0%. In sum, top 1% incomes are close to full recovery while bottom 99% incomes have hardly started to recover”. Have you ever asked yourself why the top 1% elites and multibillion dollar corporations are granted so much power while we cannot even pass laws to label GMOs, when 90% of all Americans want GMOs labeled?
Just last year, 750,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession, while corporate elite and oligarchy could legally get away with any crime. While many Americans fall into the illusion of ‘having choice’ to buy 10 different flavors of lollipop, the truth is that even the lollipop is controlled by a handful of corporations. Bottom line, these predator corporations and their selfish policies affect our everyday lives and livelihood. As Susan P. Crawford, the Author of ‘Captive Audience’ said about Comcast “We are slouching toward the past, and failures of government monopoly and policies have gotten us in this position. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T aren’t evil; they are serving their shareholders’ interests by dividing markets, picking targets, and making more money from the same number of subscribers. But where are the policies that are going to unleash competition in urban areas and require world-class network coverage everywhere else?”