Is there a need for a list of agribusiness corporations in this template? It seems that the list would be quite long. Jav43 19:57, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Only the largest ones. That list is actually quite short. SlimVirgin ^{(talk)(contribs)} 20:03, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with SlimVirgin. She did a wonderful job in creating this template. The globalization aspect is an essential aspect to modern farming. WAS 4.250 23:27, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you going to start up here now, with the mindless reverting, adding stuff without researching it, spurious arguments, WP:POINT? Again?

Do not add companies that are only subsidiaries. This list is for the largest farming corporations, the owners, not the daughter companies they operate (because that list would stretch to thousands). SlimVirgin ^{(talk)(contribs)} 20:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry about Kraft. I was still in the middle of improving the list.

This list does NOT include the largest farming corporations. That needs to be rectified.

Is it your standard practice to revert entire sequences of edits when you only disagree with one minor aspect? I know you've habitually done this on the "factory farming" page, but considering the rave reviews you have from other editors, I thought you'd at least temper this behavior under certain circumstances. Jav43 20:13, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, these are agribusiness corporations, not farming corporations. For example, Monsanto and Cargill don't actually farm. And Cargill is perhaps the only one here that deserves the term "largest". Jav43 20:14, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The vertical integration of the agricultural industry is a major aspect of farming. WAS 4.250 23:30, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict, as usual with Jav) Then remove the businesses that reliable sources show don't own or operate farms. Monsanto does both. SlimVirgin ^{(talk)(contribs)} 20:18, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Monsanto's "farming" practices are limited to seed production, and are negligible compared to their other venues. How does that make Monsanto qualify as one of the largest "farming" corporations?

Oh, and perhaps if you weren't so ready to assume bad faith and auto-revert, we wouldn't wind up in edit conflicts. Jav43 20:21, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Jav43, please control yourself better. We are all human. We all have limitations. Trust me when I tell you that Slim is doing the best she can and that she is a tremendous asset to wikipedia. WAS 4.250 23:34, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm also in favor of removing the "Large agribusiness corporations" part of the template for two reasons: One, how is "large" defined? Arbitraily choosing a cutoff, such as amount of revenue, or assets, or whatever, would seem to constitute original research. Two, will the readers find these links useful? As someone who just happened across the template while reading an article, I wondered what the point was, and came here to bring up removing them. It seems Jav43 would agree with me on that point. Picaroon (Talk) 00:32, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The concentration of farm ownership is a major issue within the industry and for consumers. It definitely belongs here. We can limit the list to the 10 largest if you want, using whatever definition reliable sources use (which, in the case of animal farming, is usually number of animals killed each year and percentage of market). SlimVirgin ^{(talk)(contribs)} 00:35, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]