In America, we have long enjoyed the benefits of inexpensive foods such as hamburger and chicken. However, a lot of folks are waking up to the fact that these "cheap" foods have a lot of hidden expenses. Ultimately, we all pay these costs in some way.

Last week, I had a few things to say about corporate factory farms. Let me expand on some of that.

Yes, the fact that we enjoy low prices on meat products in the USA is due largely to these huge, corporate factory farms (and at the rate they are swallowing each other up, eventually, some transnational megalith is going to control it all, just like the game of Monopoly – which will not be a good thing). The advantage to this system is that it is able to operate on vast economies of scale. This is why it's still possible to buy hamburger at around a $1.29 a pound (in Japan or Europe, you'd pay the equivalent of $7 to $12 for that same pound).

That's the only advantage.

On the flip side, the massive corporate agriculture firms that run factory farms don't give a tinker's damn about the environment, the farmers they contract out to, the welfare of their livestock, food safety or public health. For these corporations, it's all about the bottom line and next quarter's P & L statement.

You've probably heard about how these poor animals are stuffed together by the thousands into small feedlots or tiny pens stacked one above the other, and shot full of hormones and antibiotics, and even mutilated in order force them to adapt. You probably know about the problem of massive amounts of manure that creeps into public water supplies. I won't go into that right now.

For now, let's talk about what corporate agriculture has done to the American farmer.

Whereas in the old days, the various components of raising beef were handled by different persons – one farmer raised feed corn, another raised the cows, were then sold to and slaughtered by a local butcher, where folks could buy the meat directly – today, one corporation controls every aspect of production. As a result, these corporations wield incredible power that is leveraged against the small, independent farmer.

At the same time, these corporations become less accountable for the harm they do. God help the farmer who contracts with one of these corporate giants; under the terms of these contracts, he's little more than an indentured servant. The corporation sets all the rules and internalizes all the profits, while the farmer is stuck assuming all the risks and shouldering all the expenses of caring for the animals, disposing of wastes and dead livestock and other overhead costs.

To add insult to injury, guess who benefits from all those taxpayer subsidies that certain politicians and talking heads on the radio love to complain about? Not me! Not the small farmer! Nope...it's ConAgra, Monsanto and ADM, whose K Street lobbyists are paid a lot of money to convince your member of Congress to tax YOU in order to keep THEM in business! Not only that, but because they are considered "agriculture" and not "industry," they are exempt from any sort of environmental or labor regulations. Laws intended to preserve the autonomy and freedom to operate of independent family ranches and farms now provide cover to huge operations that should be treated as the large industrial concerns that they are.

Stay tuned...we don't have to put up with it.