The Legal Status of Agro-Industrial Units and Their Relations With the Owners and Tillers of Land

National and state laws have tended in a variety of ways to encourage the creation of agro-industrial enterprises, whose practices are not environmentally sustainable. These laws, at the same time, have discouraged the family farm. Agro-industrial enterprises are increasingly characterized by vertical integration of companies at two or more steps in food production and merchandising, processing, canning, warehousing, transporting, wholesaling and retailing. In addition, there is a fair amount of horizontal integration of companies at every step. In recent years mergers have led to a movement towards oligopoly in the United States food business. These developments have already had discernable consequences and will have more in the future. Lawyers should help formulate rational and decent policies to deal with them

The Legal Status of Agro-Industrial Units and Their Relations With the Owners and Tillers of Land

National and state laws have tended in a variety of ways to encourage the creation of agro-industrial enterprises, whose practices are not environmentally sustainable. These laws, at the same time, have discouraged the family farm. Agro-industrial enterprises are increasingly characterized by vertical integration of companies at two or more steps in food production and merchandising, processing, canning, warehousing, transporting, wholesaling and retailing. In addition, there is a fair amount of horizontal integration of companies at every step. In recent years mergers have led to a movement towards oligopoly in the United States food business. These developments have already had discernable consequences and will have more in the future. Lawyers should help formulate rational and decent policies to deal with them