Corporate Strategies in the Global Era: The Case of Mega-hog Farms in the Texas Panhandle Region

Abstract

Employing the case of the expansion of mega-hog production facilities in the Texas Panhandle region, this paper contributes to the globalization of agriculture and food literature by illustrating the strategies employed by transnational corporations (TNCs) to advance their economic and social interests and respond to emerging resistance. We argue that – rather than substantively addressing property, quality of life and environmental concerns raised by rural activists and residents – TNCs complement their hyper-mobility with corporate actions at the legitimative, political and economic levels which support their plans. At the legitimative level, hog-producing TNCs reacted to the challenges of local residents by presenting a “green” image which indicates conformity to good practices of environmental stewardship, narrows the definition of sound environmental actions and devalues opposition’s claims. Politically, TNCs modified existing environmental legislation to fit their agenda. By exercising direct control over the polity, TNCs were able to eliminate citizen participation from decision making processes concerning environmental issues. Additionally, they were able to further depoliticize environmental and property issues by shifting them from the political realm to the administrative sphere. Economically, TNCs stressed the benefits that communities received from the relocation of mega-hog operations in their areas in a context characterized by a high demand for corporate investments from other regions. Additionally, TNCs employed their economic clout to exploit communities’ needs in order to gain acceptance of corporate positions. This case study is grounded on a Critical Theory framework (Antonio 1983; Horkheimer 1972; Wiggershaus 1994). While sharing the Marxian tenets of economic domination and class struggle over of the control of the means of production, Critical Theory pays attention to the cultural and ideological sides of class domination. For Critical Theory mature capitalism is characterized by the cultural hegemony of dominant classes and the economic and ideological oppression of subordinate groups. Though the use of Immanent Critique, critical theorists document the false unity of theory and history, the claim that current social arrangements correspond to the bourgeois ideals of universal equality, justice and