Monopolizing the Market
In 1970, the top 5 beef suppliers controlled only about 25% of the market. Today, the top 4 suppliers control more than 80% of the market. The same trend can be seen happening in pork as well. This is demonstrated through the images shown above. As stated on the homepage by the Huffington Post,
factory farms raise 99.9 percent of chickens for meat, 97 percent of laying hens, 99 percent of turkeys, 95 percent of pigs, and 78 percent of cattle currently sold in the United States
Between 1970 and now, the USA has lost 88% of dairy farms because of large suppliers taking over. According to Mother Earth News,
Small family farms that generate less than $2,500 in profits every year account for 40.8 percent of the number of farms in America, but only 0.1 percent of food production. Large farms, which make over $1 million in profits each year, account for only 2.5 percent of the number of farms in the United States, but 59.1 percent of the production. This is accomplished by manipulating the density of livestock on the farm.
This means that although smaller farms, raising their animals in a humane way, take up a majority of the number of farms raising livestock, they only produce a fraction of the meat that is being sold on the markets. Many families depend on their farms to provide for them, but with larger farms taking over, the families are becoming less and less able to provide for themselves. If we want to save thousands of families from poverty because their farms were shut down due to large farms taking over, we should stop factory farming before it's too late.