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Originally Posted by Aliantha
But, at the same time, many of the small crop farmers have contracts with large retailers such as woolworths or coles for example, so it might seem like they're 'owned' by a large corporation, when in actual fact it's only the yield that's owned by the corporation, but the actual farm and land etc is owned by the farmer or family trust.
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We have a lot of that here, and the problem is that the corporation dictates how the farm must be run. Certain chicken farmers, for example, have been told they must cram the chickens wing-to-wing into windowless sheds 24 hours a day (because it's more efficient,) feed them specific processed feed (because it's cheaper,) etc., or else they will lose their contract with the corporation. Even if the farmers don't want to raise unhealthy, tortured animals, they basically have to or they won't be able to sell them to the small handful of companies with a monopoly on the market.