According to Schlosser (2002), the emergence of the fast-food industry in the US and the subsequent emergence of powerful multibillion dollar food flavoring companies have adversely impacted on the American potato farmers in various ways. The contribution of these large firms to the decline of agriculture in rural American and the ensuing conflicts may well be explained using the sociological conflicts and symbolic interaction theories.
The multinational corporations or companies running America’s most lucrative fast food industry have infiltrated every aspect of traditional agriculture and introduced a modern concept of agribusiness, thus gaining control over the American agriculture, but to the detriment of small farmers. As Schlosser (2002) notes, these companies have dominated the potato commodity market including cattle ranching hence making most farmers of these crops to lose their independence. Their pieces of land are now being largely controlled by the multibillion dollar firms. The author argues that absentee owners and large corporate farms are now replacing the family farms, thus affecting the small potato farmers.
Moreover, due to their immense purchasing power and high demand, these companies have contributed to the decline of well-known potato farmers by overpowering them. In the rural area of America, the rural community farmers are losing their social status of middle class and are being pushed to the ghettos due to creation of social stratification. Using the conflict theory, it is evident that the self-inclined and oriented nature of human beings has made the owners of these companies to reduce American potato farmers to their own prisoners. This inequality created by these companies has in effect resulted in conflicts between the small farmers and these big corporations. These companies have managed to out-compete the well-known potato farmer due to their privileged position, both politically and economically. This creation of a stratified society and decline or alienation of potato farmer as described by this author may be compared to the Marxist conflict theory of relations of owners of production and the forces of production such as machinery and workers.
References
Schlosser, E. (2002). Fast food nation. Strand, London: Penguin Books.
