“One might expect that the economic dynamo that is Tyson Foods, which has created billions of dollars of income for investors over the years, might help boost the income growth rate in the towns that produce the company’s actual value: that is, the animals, the feed and the meat. But the data suggests that Tyson is a suffocating economic force on the communities from which it derives its wealth. Without question, the company provides thousands of jobs and steady paychecks. But its cost-cutting ethos and the lack of competition left in the wake of its vertical integration restrain rural income growth. The company has expanded in economically marginal areas, and it has fed off the lowly economic position of small towns and rural communities — rather than improving it.” — Christopher Leonard, http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/tyson-foods-kills-rural-towns-zm0z14djzmat.aspx#ixzz3IXbb3wWC

• Impact on Rural Communities, via Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production;
• Community and Economy, via GRACE Communications Foundation;
• The Impact of Industrialized Animal Agriculture on Rural Communities, via HSUS;
• CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (2008), via Union of Concerned Scientists.