Economic
Imagine yourself living the dream of being an entrepreneur. You are a business man of the 21st century; you have a popular product that many firms want to purchase. You feel financially secure with your future because of the amount of buyers for your product. Then 5 years go bye, and the once abundant number of firms has dwindled down to a couple of major corporations. You try to think to yourself how did this happen? You then realize that all the little companies that fought for your business, and helped you get the highest capital are gone. They were acquired by or merged with larger firms. You know that when this happens the market gets smaller and there are less people to buy your product. With fewer options of companies to sell your product to, comes a smaller amount of profit for you. Two more years go bye and the market gets more concentrated, the remaining giants can now offer you any price they want. If you choose not to accept it, you don't sell your product. Your dreams of being your own boss and selling a quality product for a fair price are fading away. Some people may think that this story couldn't happen, but mergers and acquisitions take place everyday in the corporate world. This story that I j
The article talks about Virginia-based Smithfield foods, acquired American Foods Group and Packerland Holdings Co. Smithfield is the nation's largest pork processor; they have a 20% market share. Besides the two recent acquisitions Smithfield also has ownership of Cudahy-based Patrick Cudahy Inc. As a result of this Smithfield will now be the nation's forth-largest beef processor, with a 9% market share. Wisconsin beef producers are definitely concerned about the latest news of Smithfield's plans involving Packerland and American Foods. Tom Thieding, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation said, "Any time in a consolidation, you just lose the marketing and price opportunity." In conclusion, consolidation is taking many other forms: "mergers," "partnerships," "integration," and similar terms are being used to describe a variety of business arrangements that result in the same final product: fewer people making decisions in agriculture. In many ways, agriculture is just catching up with the rest of the business world, which has been consolidating at a record pace for the past several years. Meanwhile the farmer will become a grower, providing the labor and often some of the capital, but never owning the product as it moves through the food system and never making the major management decisions. Most consumers already put no thought into the financial cost of growing the hay that fed the cow that ends up on your plate. Smithfi
Some common words found in the essay are:
, American Foods, Jim Harsdorf, Cudahy Inc, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, Department Justice, Mike Riechers, Co Smithfield, Due Wisconsin's, Statistics Service, american foods, beef cattle, smithfield believes, packerland american foods, beef producers, herfindahl-hirschman index, sell product, milk production, highly concentrated, product fewer, business 21st century, packerland american,
Approximate Word count = 988
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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