I actually do like the monolith model of agriculture. The quality of the result is easy to improve on, and that opens a lot of niches for local and smaller regional farmers whose products are then appreciated and purchased by those who care enough to be discriminating. With the expansion of big companies like ADM and Hormel there has been a simultaneous growth in organic farming, local meat production, etc.
A lot of the super market chains can't relate to this stuff because quantities are relatively low, but we do find the stuff at the smaller markets.
For instance, there's a big chain of supermarkets around here called Cub. The pork is not fit to eat (they sell plenty, however). The reason it is garbage and we do not buy it is that it is a Hormel product that is somehow cured to be very salty. The smaller market down the street sells very high quality pork, so we buy our meat there.
Likewise with chicken. The main chicken products sold by Cub stink like bleach, are often blood shot, and just don't look wholesome. The smaller place down the street has perfectly good chicken.
In both cases, the prices are not that different between the big chain store and the smaller store.
In the case of produce, we have a seasonal tomato crop that yields good quality tomatoes from local growers. The supermarkets generally will not buy this product because they can't be assured of a high volume over a relatively long contractual period. Therefore, most of our tomatoes used to come from California, about 2000+ miles away regardless of the time of year. Some enterprising chaps created a hothouse tomato company that produces pretty decent tomatoes year round, and now we don't get the seasonal local tomatoes, but at least we get the hothouse tomatoes, which are from about 60 miles away instead of 2000. Florida and California tomato growers are still getting plenty of business, but people are finding ways to get better results.
It seems like most people don't care what they eat, or they are habituated to heating poor foods. I am continually amazed at the supermarket when I see people buying an entire shopping cart of prepared foods like frozen pizza and preservative laden bread.