AlterNet: Eaters of the World, Unite

A long article by Hightower on agricultural policies, of course..

With an oink-oink here and a ton of campaign cash there, agribusiness giants are able to dictate America's food and farm policies in both Republican and Democratic administrations. This is why our present policies are so bass-ackwards, discombobulated . . . and stupid.

Ag policy is not written for farmers and consumers, the two groups whose well-being logically would be the rationale for having any policy at all. Nor is it written in the interests of workers, conservation, small business, rural communities, good health or even good food. Instead, it's written for the profit and global expansion of names like ADM, Cargill, McDonald's, Monsanto, Nestlé, Phillip Morris, Tyson, Unilever and Wal-Mart.

Out of each dollar you spend on groceries, only 19 cents goes to the farmer, with corporate middlemen grabbing the rest.

An $8-billion-a-year federal farm program delivers zero dollars to thousands of farmers, while feeding some $500,000 a year to the likes of Charles Schwab, the gabillionaire stockbroker who gets taxpayer subsidies to grow rice at his California duck-hunting club (the rice paddies attract migrating ducks for his friends to shoot).

A handful of corporations monopolize each and every aspect of the food economy, from seeds to chemicals, grain shipping to cotton trading, processing to retailing.

This can be a happy Thanksgiving, and next year's even happier, if we commit to using our dollars and activism in support of a food system geared to the common good, rather than corporate greed. Bon appetit!