Then you are selfish, caring nothing for the good of the country or other people but only your own pocketbook and misguided worship of the market.
"not because they hoped to run farmers out of business" No that is exactly what they planned to do and did. They intentionally held the price of hogs below the cost of production until the independent family farms were broken. All in violation of the law.
There was no way to plan out of this. The power of corporate vertical integration is too big. You're just blaming the victims. Thousands of hardworking families lost their livelihood. There is no diversifying out of this. They did this to the chicken producers, then the pork producers, now the dairy producers and soon the beef producers. Grain prices too are suppressed. And you justify the destruction of thousands of families on saving yourself a few pennies at McDonalds! In the end corporate monoliths will have a monopoly on the entire food system and land base and we all, farmers and consumers alike will be slaves to the corporations.
You are really starting to sound like a progressive leftist here! I am not any more selfish than anybody else. I give what I can to those who are in need, when I am able to do so. If you want to help your neighbor in need, there is nothing stopping you from doing so. If you want to use the arm of the government to make other people help your neighbors in need, that is where most of us object.
If the monopoly were engaging in predatory pricing as you suggest, they are engaging in sloppy business practices. You are not very specific in what laws they violated, but either these monopolies are operating at a loss, in order to drive out competition, or they have found a cheaper way to produce the goods that the American consumer wants. If the former is true, and they are operating at a loss, they will pay the price when they try to recoup their losses by jacking up the price, as competitors will come along who will produce the same goods at a cheaper price. That is why we can be assured that the idea of predatory pricing is a myth, as was clearly spelled out in that video that I posted.
Preventing those monopolies from producing goods at a lower cost, is where the government puts their thumb on the scale, and it is harmful to society as it halts progress. It's the toothpaste factory analogy here. The factory modernized and it threw Mr. Bucket out of a job. Sorry Mr. Bucket, but we got machines now that can screw caps onto the tubes of toothpaste! Guess what! Other factories are going to do the same thing if they want to stay in business. That provides jobs for the machine manufacturers and for those who are willing to learn a new trade in repairing the machines when they break down. That is how America emerged from being an agricultural based society, to an industrialized nation.
In the early 1900s, somebody in Congress decided that we need to get America back on the rails, so they started this thing called Amtrak. It's pretty cool. I have been to a museum that had a passenger car. I see the train rolling down the track from time to time. I have never actually used Amtrak though. My grandmother used it a few times, because she was afraid to fly. Here's the thing... Most Americans will never use that rail, but we have to pay for it. Why? Somebody convinced our great grandparents to go along with it, and told them they don't have to pay for it themselves. The government can just sell bonds. Great! Now I have to pay for those bonds, and it shows up in my paycheck twice a month in that section called FICA. Thanks a lot great-grandparents! America doesn't need to be on the rails. We've got highways! We have privately owned airlines! We shouldn't have to pay an engineer to transport people from place to place, unless those people decide of their own free will to board a train. If not enough people care to travel by rail to make it profitable, why should we have to fund it? When I board a plane, the pilot gets his salary out of the ticket price. Airlines can charge the price they need to charge to make it profitable, because there is demand for that service.
I'm sorry your friends went out of business, but there simply wasn't enough demand for what they were providing, when someone else was able to come along and provide the same product at a lower cost. When I buy meat at the grocery store, I don't sit there and contemplate how that will help your friends stay in business. When you decide you want to buy equipment for your farm, you don't sit there and contemplate how if you pay more for XYZ tractor, it will help keep that small company that made that tractor in business, when you could get the same tractor from John Deere for less money. When you buy fencing equipment, do you look at keeping local fence company in business, or are you more concerned that if you spend too much to get the same quality fence, it could jeopardize keeping your farm afloat? What factors into your decision to buy feed or seed? You can choose to make an emotional decision, or you can make savvy business decisions. I recommend you make charitable contributions for those in need, and make wise business decisions when it comes to taking care of your business and your household, but that is just my "selfish" idea of how to run things. You operate your business as charitably as you see fit.
Here is another thought! Form a cooperative of farmers who unite to have a stronger collection of farms, so that when one of them is facing hard times, the others are able to keep them afloat. In doing so, you will be making the proverbial string longer, but you may have to occasionally get rid of dead weight, if a farmer in the cooperative, decides not to pull his load, for reasons besides illness.
