Agribusiness in the USA - The dark side of productivity and profitability | DW Documentary

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In the USA, agriculture is dominated by two magic words: productivity and profitability. The two million farmers in the United States are impressive businessmen. But their agribusiness is causing great damage.

Oversized farms, fattening facilities and pesticides: when it comes to producing more and more, almost anything goes. On cattle fattening farms in the Midwest, thousands of animals are crammed into stalls without a single blade of grass, fattened up and treated with growth hormones. Here, industrial methods are taken to the extreme.

Every year, farmers meet at the National Farm Machinery Show in Kentucky. It’s the big event of the US agricultural industry. It features farm machinery worth millions and a show that fans wouldn't miss for the world: a tractor race that’s the most prestigious in the country.

In California, carrots, artichokes and strawberries are grown on huge plantations. But this west coast grower’s paradise is struggling with extreme water shortages. Water is pumped from rivers, reservoirs and groundwater reserves at great expense. Faced with a desperate water shortage, farmers are working at breakneck speed -- even if it means that the region's inhabitants have no access to drinking water.

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