Farm and Ranch Life by Dr. Michael Rosmann 

 

Agriculture is an arena of rampant monopolization of agricultural products, markets and gene pools. Business reports for 2014 indicate three U.S. companies (Tyson, Cargill and JBS Swift) control 90 percent of domestic beef processing and wholesaling. These same three, along with Smithfield, control 66 percent of the pork available to consumers.

Tyson and three other companies oversee the production and marketing of 60 percent of the poultry available to consumers. Three corporate entities dominate the sale of dairy products in much of the United States. Four companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow) command 80 percent of the U.S. corn seed market and 70 percent of the soybean seed business, according to an Oct. 4, 2013, article in Food Democracy Now.

A 2012 Heritage Farm Companion magazine article indicated 10 companies, including the U.S. “big four,” control three-quarters of worldwide commercial seed sales. Monopolization encourages monocultures. In 2013, for example, 93 percent of soybean seeds planted in the United States were genetically modified organisms (GMOs), while 90 percent of planted corn were GMOs and more than 90 percent of cotton, sugar beet and canola seeds were GMOs, according to GMO-Compass.

Monocultures aim to yield uniform products. Monopolies specialize in certain products, market control, undercutting or stifling competition any way possible and making profits.

This specificity in production of food, processing and marketing is nonetheless spawning new diversity in all aspects of food production, including consumer demand, and even the survival of pests such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains and glyphosate-resistant weeds. The new diversity should not be surprising; a key law of nature is that diversity favors survivability.

Similarly, a key principle of General Systems Theory is that the more solutions available to solve a problem, the greater the likelihood the best solution will emerge. So, it can be expected while the use of glyphosate-resistant seeds makes weed control in crop fields easier in some ways, the survival of weeds that tolerate the herbicide also is favored.

Nature likes diversity. Prairie ecosystems that remain in their native state contain a rich variety of plants, insects, animals and organisms of many kinds. These prairies are more likely to adapt to threats such as pests and unusual weather conditions, than a field planted to a single crop.

Crossbred animals that have two parents with different genetic makeup within the same species usually thrive better than animals that have been selected to maximize only certain traits.

Humans also like diversity. Given a choice, most people prefer variety in their foods and experiences over the same foods and activities. Most consumers prefer a broad range of options in their diet, which may help explain why heritage seeds, farmers’ markets and retail grocers that offer a multitude of choices of similar products in their stores are becoming more popular. The preference for diversity contributes to the popularity of community supported agriculture, which offers customers seasonal variety in their food choices. It also is a factor that increases the likelihood organic food production is here to stay.

People benefit from diversity in many ways. For example, farm children who have been exposed to a variety of pollens and microbes of all sorts have fewer allergies than children who are protected from these substances by living indoors and using antiseptics frequently.

The principle is further illustrated by how most workers prefer jobs that do not involve repetitive completion of the same task. A variety of employment experiences is more stimulating and fun.

We might not be thinking about the laws of nature when we make choices that increase our options, but that is what is going on. We humans have a propensity to seek diversity because it increases our probability of surviving as a species.

“We can’t control whole systems,” says distinguished Iowa State University professor and agricultural ethicist Frederick Kirschenmann, in Cultivating an Ecological Conscience. He goes on to say “our world is a complex adaptive system that is interconnected, interdependent and constantly changing.”

Diversity is key to resilience, Kirschenmann proposes, and resilience is necessary for survival.

Unless people, crops, livestock, food production and systems in general are adaptable, they are ultimately doomed to extinction.

So, it’s not unusual that monocultures and monopolies generate the need for diversity even though their aim is to produce ever more of the same. The world would be a mundane and unhealthy place without diversity, and we can be glad for diversity’s contribution to our agricultural livelihoods, our production of essential food, fiber and fuel and ultimately our survival.

Monocultures and monopolies have the upper hand over sustainable diversity in agribusiness currently. Wealthy companies and individuals have too much influence over policymakers and governmental rules. One approach cannot get out of control in favor of the other.

This principle needs to be translated into policies and laws that promote diverse alternative approaches to agriculture, as well as an intensive industrial approach. The survival platform should be equal for both approaches.

Michael R. Rosmann, Ph.D. is on the adjunct faculty of the University of Iowa, author of Excellent Joy: Fishing, Farming, Hunting and Psychology, lectures across the United States and abroad and owns a row crop farm in Harlan, Iowa.

He is a founding partner of the nonprofit network AgriWellness, Inc. Email thoughts and questions to him, and find recently published columns available for a small fee, through his website at www.agbehavioralhealth.com