by E.G. Vallianatos

About the author: E.G. Vallianatos is the author of Fear in the Countryside and The Power of the Powerless Third World.

North American agriculture is the grandest experiment ever to bring nature and culture under authoritarian control. The plight of the farm workers is the first
symptom of decay—that this massive experiment is itself out of control. Now, in the last few remaining years of the twentieth century, we also see that more and more ‘family farmers’ are pushed into the decay of the farm workers....

Agribusiness corporations are in charge of US farming and food: the top seven US agribusiness corporations—Cargill, RJR Nabisco, Safeway, Continental Grain, Mars, Southland, Supermarkets General—had an income in 1989 of $106.4 billion. And Cargill, the giant food company...