wfn.org | Church calls for anti-trust probe of agriculture

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

CLEVELAND (UMNS) - United Methodism's highest legislative body agreed May 10
to ask the U.S. attorney general to investigate agriculture with regard to
possible violations of anti-trust legislation.

The denomination's General Conference, meeting May 2-12, accepted without
debate a request from the Nebraska Annual (regional) Conference to call for
"an immediate and comprehensive investigation" into the concentration of the
production, marketing, processing and pricing of all major farm commodities.

The resolution urges the attorney general to look for possible violations of
the Sherman Anti-trust Act. The petition cites a 1999 report, compiled by
three faculty members at the University of Missouri, that said an oligopoly
of agribusinesses controls 40 percent or more of the food- processing
business and is increasing its control of production. 

Two-thirds of the United Methodist churches in the United States are in
rural areas, according to the resolution. It also notes that the number of
family farms in the United States has decreased from 6 million to 2 million
during the last three decades. 
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      -- Joretta Purdue

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United Methodist News Service
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