ABSTRACT
Agricultural systems in the US and Canada are the most industrialized in the world. Defining characteristics of this system of industrial agriculture include massive machinery, heavy use of inputs, the predominance of monocultures, large populations of intensively reared livestock, exceptionally high levels of per farmer productivity, the disarticulation of agriculture from rural communities, the control of agricultural inputs and outputs by large transnational corporations (TNCs), and the illusion of diversity in supermarkets and other retail outlets. The productive bounty of industrial agriculture has led to an out-sized place in the global food economy. With some 5 per cent of the world’s total population (1 in 20) and only 0.25 per cent of the world’s agricultural population (just 1 in 400), the US and Canada produce 14 per cent of world agro-exports by value, account for 15 per cent of the world’s agricultural GDP, and absorb roughly 12 per cent of all agro-imports (FAO, 2007a, Tables C.1, C.2).
