Pirate Food

I couldn't miss the big, blue full-page ad in the Star Tribune on Tuesday. At the top was this symbol:


What the heck is that, I wondered? A pirate? Someone whose eye has been poked out with a spoon? I realized, on one level, it was meant to be a smiley face, but the one-eyed thing was really distracting -- what happened to the other eye? Or was it an asymmetrical cyclops?

Below the symbol, there was this longish headline: "Of all the homes we're found in, we're especially proud of this one."

Which I must admit I didn't understand -- did they mean my house? So I scanned across the assemblage of product packages at the bottom of the ad… I guess I have a can of Pam in my cupboard somewhere, but other than that, these aren't foods I have on hand.


Of course, I saw the company name at just about the same time, and realized it was an ad for ConAgra, a corporation whose name is synonymous with corporate agribusiness.

I've always assumed that giant food processors keep a low profile on purpose, hoping that consumers will think Ro-Tel is actually an ethnic product, or Orville Redenbacher is still owned by the wavy-haired guy with the funny glasses.

In the age of the local food movement, does it really serve ConAgra's brands well to advertise the fact that they're all made by the same (one-eyed) corporation? Not with me, it doesn't. Now I know what to avoid.

But they think the ad and the logo will help them sell more food, according to an AP article carried in the Pioneer Press the next day. According to AP, ConAgra is "rebranding itself as it looks to tout its portfolio to investors and retailers as stores try to deal with frugal consumers by carrying only the best-performing brands."

Here's a little bit of research on the dominance of a limited number of agribusiness companies. (Source: Agriculture and Monopoly Capital on bnet.com by W. Heffernan, "Concentration Of Agricultural Markets," Unpublished paper, Department of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia, October, 1997).

The Four Largest Commodity Processing Firms and Percent of U.S. Market Share They Control

Broilers (meat Chickens): 55% of production
Tyson-Foods, Gold Kist, Perdue Farms, ConAgra

Beef: 87% of slaughter
IBP, ConAgra (Armour, Swift, Monfort, Miller), Cargill (Excel), Farmland Industries (National Beef)

Pork: 60% of slaughter
Smithfield, IBP, ConAgra, Cargill

Sheep: 73% of slaughter
ConAgra, Superior Packing, High Country, Denver Lamb

Turkey: 35% of production
ConAgra (Butterball), Wampler Turkeys, Hormel (Jennie-O), Rocco Turkeys

Flour Milling: 62% of milling
Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, Cargill, Cereal Food Processors

Soybean Crushing: 76% of processing
Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge, Ag Processors

Dry Corn Milling: 57% of milling
Bunge, Illinois Cereal Mills, Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra (Lincon Grain)

Wet Corn Milling: 74% of milling
Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Tare and Lyle, CPC

That was 12 years ago. What do you want to bet it's even more concentrated now?

Maybe the pirate image isn't so wrong for ConAgra after all. They've been taking over smaller food companies for years as they ensure a market for their food commodities and improve their bottom line by selling people these "value added" brands.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Hunts ketchup.