This Affects Everyone: Corporate Control in Our Food System

We’ve got to talk about corporate control.

Last month JBS—one of the world’s largest meat processors—announced that their subsidiary was set to acquire The Vegetarian Butcher from Unilever. On the surface, this may seem like just another business transaction, but it’s much more than that. This acquisition is a glaring example of what’s wrong with our food system. 

In 2014, Leah Garcés, the founder of The Transfarmation Project^®, sat down with Craig Watts, an industrial poultry farmer turned whistleblower. Leah, a lifelong animal rights activist, and Craig, a chicken farmer who had spent years raising chickens under contract with Perdue, should have been on opposite sides of the fight. But they quickly realized they were fighting the same enemy: a broken industrial food system controlled by powerful corporations.

Leah and Craig’s unlikely alliance laid the foundation for The Transfarmation Project. The two shared a mission: to help farmers break free from corporate control and transition to growing sustainable specialty crops.

No matter what you eat, it’s becoming harder and harder for consumers to avoid the megacorporations that dominate our grocery stores. That’s a big problem! 

The Problem with Corporate Control

The consolidation of our food system is nothing new. It’s a trend that has been accelerating for decades. In the meat industry alone, just four companies—JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef—control over 80% of the U.S. beef market. The pork, chicken, and dairy industries are not much different. 

When large corporations control this much of the market, smaller farmers and producers often pay the price. Farmers are typically locked into unfair contracts, forced to make costly upgrades to keep up with corporate demands, and left vulnerable to fluctuating market prices that they have no control over.

The effects ripple out to consumers as well. Fewer choices, higher prices, and misleading marketing are all direct consequences of corporate control. 

Why JBS Is Buying a Plant-Based Company Matters

JBS is not just any company—it’s the world’s largest meat processor, responsible for the slaughter of over 13 million animals every single day. The fact that JBS is now investing in plant-based products underlines a troubling trend: Even alternatives to factory farmed foods are being swallowed up by the same corporations that fuel factory farming.

By bringing The Vegetarian Butcher into their portfolio, JBS eliminates even more competition. The megacorporation doesn’t need plant-based products to thrive, but acquiring them gives the company another avenue for capitalizing on consumers’ growing concerns over our food system. 

Unfortunately, this acquisition isn’t anything new. Tyson Foods, Cargill, and other major meat processors have been investing in plant-based and alternative protein companies for years. They know that consumer demand for ethical, sustainable options is growing. But instead of adapting their destructive business models to meet that demand in good faith, they’re working to corner the market and limit true competition, hiding under a variety of logos and brands.

Fighting Corporate Greed—Together

JBS’s acquisition of The Vegetarian Butcher is a reminder that corporate consolidation won’t stop on its own. We have to work together to push back. Supporting small-scale local farmers, advocating farmer protections and antitrust enforcement, and investing in farm transitions are critical steps toward building a more just and resilient food system.

At The Transfarmation Project, we believe that farmers deserve more than to be pawns in a corporate game. They deserve autonomy, fair pay, and the ability to build sustainable businesses that nourish their communities. That’s why we work every day to help farmers transition out of industrial animal agriculture and into a more just and resilient future.

This fight affects everyone. A food system controlled by a few corporations is fragile and unsustainable. But a food system led by independent farmers, growing diverse and sustainable crops—that’s a food system built to last.