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Eat Or Be Eaten: How ‘Big Ag’ Came To Be

The industry that supplies farmers with the tools to raise crops is on the brink of a watershed moment. High-profile deals are in the works that would combine the largest agri-chemical companies, sending ripples through farm fields and dinner tables.  In some ways, the growth and consolidation of the agriculture industry is a common story of American business:  growth snowballed until small companies become part of larger conglomerates. But farming only transitioned from a self-contained enterprise to big business in the 20th century. And as the industry that produces our food, the consequences of corporate changes will reach nearly every American’s dinner table. To understand the significance of this consolidation, you have to go back a century to look at how the industry got to where it is today. Now, with companies seeing lower profits than they’d grown accustomed to, they’re arguing that to invest in the innovations necessary for the next century of agribusiness success, they again need to find efficiencies and increase collaboration.

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Nebraska Educational Television
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