Abstract
After briefly explaining the context for questioning whether the agrifood industry suffers from a lack of free and fair competition, this introduction has three objectives. First, to assess the meaning of adequate and fair competition. Second, to summarize the contributed essays published in this volume. Third, to comment about what the analyses tell us about the ethics and economics of agrifood competition.
A sense of injustice must be examined even if it turns out to be erroneously based, and it must, of course, be thoroughly pursued if it is well founded. And we cannot be sure whether it is erroneous or well founded without some investigation.
– Amartya Sen (2009, pp. 388–389)
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- 1.
Transcripts and videos of the sessions are available online at http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/workshops/ag2010/index.html
- 2.
Quoting one farmer testifying at the meetings: “cheap food is not really cheap” (USDOJ-USDA 2010, p. 330).
- 3.
Sen (2009, p. 4) quotes an eighteenth century British judge who said the following: “consider what you think justice requires and decide accordingly. But never give your reasons; for your judgment will probably be right, but your reasons will certainly be wrong.”
- 4.
For example, the subtitle of the US Departments of Justice and Agriculture workshops held in 2010 is “A Dialogue on Competition Issues Facing Farmers in Today’s Agricultural Marketplace.”
- 5.
- 6.
Concentration ratios are reported in 1967 using SIC codes, while in 2007 they are reported using the revised NAICS codes. The bridge between SIC and NAICS codes for the data reported here is as follows: For animal slaughter the SIC code used is 2011 and NAICS used is 311611; for wet corn milling the SIC is 2046 and NAICS is 311221; and for flour milling the SIC is 2041 and NAICS is 311211. Data from US Census Bureau (2012) tables on concentration ratios, share of value of shipments accounted for by the largest companies for industries indicated.
- 7.
Vorstenbosch (2000) addresses this issue by considering the question of whether farmers should be entitled to special compensation from public funds and whether such compensation deserves differential treatment (e.g., why not compensate workers or firm owners in other industries with public funds when adverse circumstances arise?). His argument is that compensating agricultural participants with public resources, perhaps justifiable historically, requires today “fundamental rethinking in view of the changing technological, economic, and cultural conditions of agriculture” (p. 81).
- 8.
For a useful though simple discussion, see OECD (2007).
- 9.
The caveat here is that market prices have the appropriate signaling property when they are rising (or falling) relative to prices in other markets. If there is a general increase in prices characterized by inflation, then rising prices will not signal the potential for more favorable exchange opportunities to sellers.
- 10.
The quote is from the definition of “compete,” and the synonyms listed are to the word “rivalry” (see http://dictionary.com, accessed 27 January 2012).
- 11.
Within agrifood scholarship, the phrase “farm to fork” and the issue of “local foods” reflect a similar concern about the growing distance between farmer and food consumer.
- 12.
Sen (1977, p. 317) places the blame on Francis Edgeworth, whom Sen quoted as saying in his 1881 book, Mathematical Psychics, that “the first principle of Economics is that every agent is actuated only by self-interest.”
- 13.
See, for instance, Friedman (1962), Friedman and Friedman (1980), and Marx (1867).
- 14.
Hence Knight’s book can also be used as a framework for defining the meaning of adequate competition.
- 15.
However, this desire for individual satisfaction, according to Knight, means that there will be a strong incentive for “deceit and corruption” (pp. 41–42). This concern mirrors that raised by the classical economists about the need for justice in economic exchange.
- 16.
For instance, while Knight believed that “There seems to be ground for treating Marx’s conclusions seriously,” he believed that Marx’s “supporting logic” should be “repudiated” (p. 44, footnote).
- 17.
Rawls introduced the idea of the “veil of ignorance.” If all members of society met to decide the rules by which they would live, and if they did so under a “veil of ignorance,” not knowing what their circumstances would be in the society (e.g., whether they would be rich or poor, etc.), then what rules would they establish? Rawls argued that under a veil of ignorance people would choose a system of rules that ensured all members of society had access to basic liberties and that the least advantaged members of society received the greatest benefit relative to some other potential system of societal rules.
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James, H.S. (2013). Introduction to the Ethics and Economics of Agrifood Competition: Connotations, Complications and Commentary. In: James, Jr., H. (eds) The Ethics and Economics of Agrifood Competition. The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6274-9_1
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