Editing Vertical integration (section)

===Agriculture===
{{Further | Meat industry}}
Vertical integration through production and marketing contracts have also become the dominant model for [[livestock]] production. Currently, 90% of poultry, 69% of hogs, and 29% of cattle are contractually produced through vertical integration.<ref name="livestock">Paul Stokstad, Enforcing Environmental Law in an Unequal Market: The Case of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, 15 Mo. Envtl. L. & Pol’y Rev. 229, 234-36 (Spring 2008)</ref> The USDA supports vertical integration because it has increased food productivity. However, "... contractors receive a large share of farm receipts, formerly assumed to go to the operator's family".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer-agricultural-economic-report/aer747.aspx#.UpaBmsRONqU |title=USDA ERS - Farmers' Use of Marketing and Production Contracts |publisher=Ers.usda.gov |access-date=2015-04-24 |archive-date=24 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424114144/http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer-agricultural-economic-report/aer747.aspx#.UpaBmsRONqU |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Under production contracts, growers raise animals owned by integrators. Farm contracts contain detailed conditions for growers, who are paid based on how efficiently they use feed, provided by the integrator, to raise the animals. The contract dictates how to construct the facilities, how to feed, house, and medicate the animals, and how to handle manure and dispose of carcasses. Generally, the contract also shields the integrator from liability.<ref name="livestock" /> [[Jim Hightower]], in his book, ''Eat Your Heart Out'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qaxIAAAAYAAJ |title=Eat Your Heart Out: Food Profiteering in America - Jim Hightower - Google Books |date=2009-10-21 |access-date=2015-04-24|isbn=9780517524541 |last1=Hightower |first1=Jim |publisher=Crown Publishers }}</ref> discusses this liability role enacted by large food companies. He finds that in many cases of agricultural vertical integration, the integrator ([[food company]]) denies the farmer the right of entrepreneurship. This means that the farmer can only sell ''under'' and ''to'' the integrator. These restrictions on specified growth, Hightower argues, strips the selling and producing power of the farmer. The producer is ultimately limited by the established standards of the integrator. Yet, at the same time, the integrator still keeps the responsibility connected to the farmer. Hightower sees this as ownership without reliability.<ref>Hightower, Jim. ''Eat Your Heart Out'', 1975, Crown Publishing. pg 162-168, {{ISBN|978-0517524541}}</ref>

Under marketing contracts, growers agree in advance to sell their animals to integrators under an agreed price system. Generally, these contracts shield the integrator from liability for the grower's actions and the only negotiable item is a price.<ref name="livestock" />