Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace; How We Got to Be So Hated by Gore Vidal
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002
ISBN 1-56025-405-X
(pages 61- 64) "Joel Dyer, in _Harvest of Rage: Why Oklahoma City Is Only the Beginning_, has discovered some very real conspiracies out there, but the conspirators are old hands at deflecting attention from themselves...
"But Dyer has unearthed a genuine ongoing conspiracy that affects everyone in the United States. Currently, a handful of agro-conglomerates are working to drive America's remaining small farmers off their land by systematically paying them less for their produce than it costs to grow, thus forcing them to get loans from the conglomerates' banks, assume mortgages, and undergo foreclosures and the sale of land to corporate-controlled agribusiness. But is this really a conspiracy or just the Darwinian workings of an efficient marketplace? There is, for once, a smoking gun in the form of a blueprint describing how best to rid the nation of small farmers. Dyer writes: 'In 1962, the Committee for Economic Development comprised approximately seventy-five of the nations' most powerful corporate executives. They represented not only the food industry but also oil and gas, insurance, investment and retail industries. Almost all groups that stood to gain from consolidation were represented on that committee. Their report [_An Adaptive Program for Agriculture_] outlined a plan to eliminate farmers and farms. It was detailed and well thought out.' Simultaneously, 'as early as 1964, congressmen were being told by industry giants like Pillsbury, Swift, General Foods, and Campbell Soup that the biggest problem in agriculture was too many farmers.' Good psychologists, the CEOs had noted that farm children, if sent to college, seldom return to the family farm. Or as one famous economist said to a famous senator who was complaining about jet lag on a night flight from New York to London, 'Well, it sure beats farming.' The committee got the government to send farm children to college. Predictably, most did not come back. Government then offered to help farmers relocate in other lines of work, allowing their land to be consolidated in ever vaster combines owned by fewer and fewer corporations.
"So a conspiracy had been set in motion to replace the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation whose backbone was the independent farm family with a series fo agribusiness monopolies where, Dyer writes, 'only five to eight multinational companies have, for all intents and purposes, been the sole purchasers and transporters not only of the American grain supply but that of the entire world.' By 1982 'these companies controlled 96 percent of U.S. wheat exports, 95 percent of U.S. corn exports,' and so on through the busy aisles of chic Gristedes, homely Ralph's, sympathetic Piggly Wigglys.
"Has consolidation been good for the customers? [Note that Vidal doesn't write "consumers".] By and large, no. Monopolies allow for no bargains, nor do they have to fuss too much about quality because we have no alternative to what they offer. Needless to say, they are hostile to labor unions and indifferent to working conditions for the once independent farmers, now ill-paid employees. For those of us who grew up in the prewar United States there was the genuine ham sandwich. Since consolidation, ham has been so rubberized that it tastes of nothing at all while its texture is like rosy plastic. Why? In the great hogariums a hog remains in one place, on its feet, for life. Since it does not root about - or even move - it builds up no natural resistance to disease. This means a great deal of drugs are pumped into the prisoner's body until its death and transfiguration as inedible ham.
"By and large, the Sherman antitrust laws are long since gone. Today three companies control 80 percent of the total beef-packing market. How does this happen? How do dispossessed farmers have no Congressional representatives to turn to? Why do consumers get stuck with mysterious pricings of products that in themselves are inferior to those of an earlier time? Dyer's answer is simple but compelling. Through their lobbyists, the corporate executives who drew up the 'adaptive program' [Note that a consolidated corporate feudal agribusiness system is most certainly less adaptive and diverse and stable than what it replaced.] for agriculture now own or rent or simply intimidate Congresses and presidents while the courts are presided over by their former lobbyists, an endless supply of white-collar servants since two-thirds of all the lawyers on our small planet are Americans. Finally, the people at large are not represented in government while corporations are, lavishly."
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002
ISBN 1-56025-405-X
(pages 61- 64) "Joel Dyer, in _Harvest of Rage: Why Oklahoma City Is Only the Beginning_, has discovered some very real conspiracies out there, but the conspirators are old hands at deflecting attention from themselves...
"But Dyer has unearthed a genuine ongoing conspiracy that affects everyone in the United States. Currently, a handful of agro-conglomerates are working to drive America's remaining small farmers off their land by systematically paying them less for their produce than it costs to grow, thus forcing them to get loans from the conglomerates' banks, assume mortgages, and undergo foreclosures and the sale of land to corporate-controlled agribusiness. But is this really a conspiracy or just the Darwinian workings of an efficient marketplace? There is, for once, a smoking gun in the form of a blueprint describing how best to rid the nation of small farmers. Dyer writes: 'In 1962, the Committee for Economic Development comprised approximately seventy-five of the nations' most powerful corporate executives. They represented not only the food industry but also oil and gas, insurance, investment and retail industries. Almost all groups that stood to gain from consolidation were represented on that committee. Their report [_An Adaptive Program for Agriculture_] outlined a plan to eliminate farmers and farms. It was detailed and well thought out.' Simultaneously, 'as early as 1964, congressmen were being told by industry giants like Pillsbury, Swift, General Foods, and Campbell Soup that the biggest problem in agriculture was too many farmers.' Good psychologists, the CEOs had noted that farm children, if sent to college, seldom return to the family farm. Or as one famous economist said to a famous senator who was complaining about jet lag on a night flight from New York to London, 'Well, it sure beats farming.' The committee got the government to send farm children to college. Predictably, most did not come back. Government then offered to help farmers relocate in other lines of work, allowing their land to be consolidated in ever vaster combines owned by fewer and fewer corporations.
"So a conspiracy had been set in motion to replace the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation whose backbone was the independent farm family with a series fo agribusiness monopolies where, Dyer writes, 'only five to eight multinational companies have, for all intents and purposes, been the sole purchasers and transporters not only of the American grain supply but that of the entire world.' By 1982 'these companies controlled 96 percent of U.S. wheat exports, 95 percent of U.S. corn exports,' and so on through the busy aisles of chic Gristedes, homely Ralph's, sympathetic Piggly Wigglys.
"Has consolidation been good for the customers? [Note that Vidal doesn't write "consumers".] By and large, no. Monopolies allow for no bargains, nor do they have to fuss too much about quality because we have no alternative to what they offer. Needless to say, they are hostile to labor unions and indifferent to working conditions for the once independent farmers, now ill-paid employees. For those of us who grew up in the prewar United States there was the genuine ham sandwich. Since consolidation, ham has been so rubberized that it tastes of nothing at all while its texture is like rosy plastic. Why? In the great hogariums a hog remains in one place, on its feet, for life. Since it does not root about - or even move - it builds up no natural resistance to disease. This means a great deal of drugs are pumped into the prisoner's body until its death and transfiguration as inedible ham.
"By and large, the Sherman antitrust laws are long since gone. Today three companies control 80 percent of the total beef-packing market. How does this happen? How do dispossessed farmers have no Congressional representatives to turn to? Why do consumers get stuck with mysterious pricings of products that in themselves are inferior to those of an earlier time? Dyer's answer is simple but compelling. Through their lobbyists, the corporate executives who drew up the 'adaptive program' [Note that a consolidated corporate feudal agribusiness system is most certainly less adaptive and diverse and stable than what it replaced.] for agriculture now own or rent or simply intimidate Congresses and presidents while the courts are presided over by their former lobbyists, an endless supply of white-collar servants since two-thirds of all the lawyers on our small planet are Americans. Finally, the people at large are not represented in government while corporations are, lavishly."
No comments:
Post a Comment