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Summary
There is regular interest among farmers, agribusinesses, and policymakers concerning the competitiveness of food and agricultural industries. It has also been of great interest to economists and has been researched for nearly a century as detailed by Crespi and MacDonald (2022) and recently studied to great extent by the US Department of Agriculture (MacDonald, Dong, and Fuglie 2023).
The purpose of this policy brief is neither to forge new research nor draw conclusions from the existing research, but rather to summarize the current state of concentration and ownership of agricultural and agriculture adjacent industries in the United States so that interested parties can debate and probe for answers within a common frame of reference. We begin with standard definitions that arise when speaking of competitive industry structure and then examine particular industries in a bit more detail in the following sections:
1. Frequently used Terminology when Discussing Concentration and Consolidation
2. Concentration in US Food and Agricultural Manufacturing and Adjacent Industries
3. Broiler Chicken, Pork, and Beef
4. Seeds
5. Grains and Oilseeds
6. Fertilizer
7. Farming