Talk:Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company

food monopioly categorization
User:Hogie75 has created a new category, Category:Food Monopolies and today added this article under it. I have not thought about categories much before, but this led me to go read about them.

Categorization says: "Categorization of articles must be verifiable. It should be clear from verifiable information in the article why it was placed in each of its categories. Use the Category unsourced template if you find an article in a category that is not shown by sources to be appropriate, or the Category relevant? template if the article gives no clear indication for inclusion in a category. Categorization must also maintain a neutral point of view. Categorizations appear on article pages without annotations or referencing to justify or explain their addition; editors should be conscious of the need to maintain a neutral point of view when creating categories or adding them to articles. Categorizations should generally be uncontroversial; if the category's topic is likely to spark controversy, then a list article (which can be annotated and referenced) is probably more appropriate."

The criteria for inclusion in this category is unclear to me. There were four companies listed under the category when I first saw it: Monsanto, Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company, PepsiCo, and National Linseed Oil Trust. Of those four, only one, National Linseed Oil Trust, has been found to be a monopoly under the law. Pepsico is in a fiercely competitive market, most famously with Coca Cola, and the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company article says nothing about it being a monopoly. (it has now been removed from the list) Many have accused Monsanto of being a monopoly, but a recent US justice department inquiry on anti-competitive behavior in the seed markets came back with no findings. It appears to me that in general, this category has no criteria, fails NPOV, and fails Verifiability. Since Monsanto has never been actually found to be a monopoly by any legal authority, I removed the categorization from the Monsanto article and am removing it from this article. As I mentioned, somebody else removed it from the Pepsico article already. It seems to me that this category should be more clearly defined or perhaps deleted altogether, but I have no interest in taking action on that. Jytdog (talk) 15:24, 8 December 2013 (UTC)