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133 Hank was the first person: At the request of Hank’s family, I have not used his real name.
136 about half a million ranchers sold off: Based on numbers provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
In 1968, McDonald’s bought ground beef: For the consolidation of the chain’s beef purchasing, see Love, Behind the Arches, pp. 333–38.
137 at the height of the Beef Trust: Cited in Competition and the Livestock Market, Report of a Task Force Commissioned by the Center for Rural Affairs (Walt Hill, Neb.: April 1990), p. 31.
In 1970 the top four meatpacking firms: Cited ibid., p. 31.
Today the top four meatpacking firms: The figure comes from a USDA study, cited in George Anthan, “2 Reports Focus on Packers’ Profits,” Des Moines Register, May 30, 1999.
138 the rancher’s share of every retail dollar: Estimate cited in “Prepared Statement of Keith Collins, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Before the House Committee on Agriculture,” Federal News Service, February 10, 1999.
control about 20 percent of the live cattle in the United States: 1997 estimate of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, cited in “Prepared Statement of Keith Collins.” See also “Captive Supplies — Who, What, When, Where and Why,” Colorado Farmer, October 1997.
as much as 80 percent of the cattle being exchanged: Cited in Concentration in Agriculture, p. 31.
“A free market requires”: Competition and the Livestock Market, p. v.
139 Eight chicken processors now controclass="underline" Cited in Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry, p. 8.
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi now produce: Ibid., p. A-3.
“I have an idea”: Quoted in Monci Jo Williams, “McDonald’s Refuses to Plateau,” Fortune, November 12, 1984.
140 a new breed of chicken: See Love, Behind the Arches, p. 342.
the second-largest purchaser of chicken: Cited in Williams, “McDonald’s Refuses to Plateau.”
A chemical analysis of McNuggets: The researcher was Dr. Frank Sacks, assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard University Medical School, and he utilized gas chromatography to analyze McNuggets for Science Digest. See “Study Raises Beef over Fast-Food Frying,” Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1986, and Irvin Molotsky, “Risk Seen in Saturated Fats Used in Fast Foods,” New York Times, November 15, 1985.
140 still derive much of their flavor from beef additives: The ingredients and fat profile of McNuggets can be found in “McDonald’s Nutrition Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, 1997.
“The impact of McNuggets”: Quoted in Smith, “Changing Tastes.”
Twenty years ago, most chicken was sold whole: Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry, p. 21.
In 1992 American consumption of chicken: Cited in Linder, “I Gave My Employer a Chicken That Had No Bone,” p. 53.
Tyson now manufactures: Cited in Sheila Edmundson, “Real Home of the McNugget Is Tyson,” Memphis Business Journal, July 9, 1999.
and sells chicken to ninety of the one hundred largest restaurant chains: Cited in Douglas McInnis, “Super Chicken,” Beef, February 2000.
A Tyson chicken grower never owns: Interview with Larry Holder, executive director of the National Contract Poultry Growing Association.
141 Most growers must borrow: See Steven Bjerklie, “Dark Passage,” Meat & Poultry, (August 1994), as well as Dan Fesperman and Kate Shatzkin, “The Plucking of the American Chicken Farmer; From the Big Poultry Companies Comes a New Twist on Capitalism,” Baltimore Sun, February 28, 1999.
A 1995 survey by Louisiana Tech: “Economic Returns for U.S. Broiler Producers,” National Contract Growers Institute study, completed with cooperation of researchers in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Louisiana Tech University, October 11, 1995.
About half of the nation’s chicken growers: Cited in Sheri Venena, “Growing Pains,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 18, 1998.
“We get the check first”: Quoted ibid.
when the United States had dozens of poultry firms: See Marj Charlier, “Chicken Economics: The Broiler Industry Consolidates, and That Is Bad News to Farmers,” Wall Street Journal, January 4, 1990.
142 “Our relationship with our growers”: Quoted in Venena, “Growing Pains.”
A number of studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: The most recent study, issued by the USDA’s Economic Research Service in May 1999, found “no evidence… that increasing [packer] concentration results in lower farm prices” — a finding considered absurd and ridiculed by a number of ranchers and economists. Quoted in Anthan, “2 Reports Focus on Packers’ Profits.” See also “Meatpacking: Where’s the Big Beef?” Bismarck Tribune, May 9, 1999.
Annual beef consumption in the United States: See Chris Bastian and Glen Whipple, “Trends in Supply and Demand of Beef,” Western Beef Producer, October 1997.
A pound of chicken costs: Cited in Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry, p. 19.
“alternative methods for selling fed cattle”: Quoted in Alan Guebert, “Chew on This: USDA, Congress, Take on Meatpackers with Little Success,” Pantagraph, June 7, 1998.
143 Three of Archer Daniels Midland’s top officials: For the prison terms, see Sharon Walsh, “Three Former Officials at ADM Get Jail Terms,” Washington Post, July 10, 1999. For the cost to farmers, see Sharon Walsh, “ADM Officials Found Guilty of Price Fixing,” Washington Post, September 18, 1998. For a detailed account of the conspiracy, see Angela Wissman, “ADM Execs Nailed on Price-Fixing, May Do Time, Government Gets Watershed Convictions, But Company Still Dominates Lysine Market,” Illinois Legal Times, October 1998.
143 “We have a saying at this company”: Quoted in Kurt Eichenwald, “Videotapes Take Star Role at Archers Daniels Midland Trial,” New York Times, August 4, 1998.
many ranchers were afraid to testify: See Concentration in Agriculture, pp. 7, 29–30.
144 “It makes no sense for us”: Quoted in Kevin O’ Hanlon, “Judge Clears Way for Alabama Lawsuit Against Nation’s Largest Meatpacker,” Associated Press, May 4, 1999.