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Public Regulation of the Cereal Industry: The Need to Change National Policy Regarding Consumer Protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2020

Theresa Flaim*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University
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Extract

The Federal Trade Commission has recently charged that four corporations, Kellogg, General Foods, General Mills and Quaker Oats, have maintained monopoly power in the ready-to-eat cereal industry for over 30 years. The case against the cereal industry has set off a widespread wave of public reaction. Anti-business groups are anxious to prove that after all these years, America is not really dominated by big business interests after all. Consumerists are clamoring for the head of another conglomerate monster who has, so they say, been filling society's collective stomach with food products which are as expensive as they are non-nutritive. Business advocates are plaintively crying that it is high time that Americans recognized that big business is necessary both socially and economically, and that our national posture toward big business should be changed in order to protect it from periodic public witch hunting which is rooted in a system of values that became antiquated with the horse and buggy.

Type
Marketing and Food Distribution
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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References

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