Corporate oligopoly power affects the economy, the political process, the environment, and everyone who grows food or eats it!
Multinational agro-food companies spend millions of dollars on marketing and public relations. Beyond increasing their sales of individual products and services, they also want to be seen as generous global citizens who can continually improve the menu of food choices for wealthier consumers, while at the same time solving the problem of hunger in poor countries through new technologies and free trade agreements.
But behind such benign and carefully-crafted slogans as "supermarket to the world" lies a more complex reality. From seed and fertilizer firms to processing and food-manufacturing companies to large-scale retailers, corporations understand that the larger their market share, the greater their ability to influence the world in which they operate.
The trend toward consolidation at every stage along the food production chain has dramatically impacted the global economy and distribution of income and wealth. Corporate spending on lobbying and campaign finance ensures that food companies and their trade associations will have far more influence on trade and regulatory policy than most voters realize.
Corporate political influence has direct consequences for the public, as industry groups shape nutrition guidelines, food safety regulations, and rules for labeling and content disclosure. Meanwhile, farmers, processing and retail workers are all squeezed by the monopoly power of food conglomerates so large that they can set farm wokers' and others' wages and farmgate prices substantially below levels that would ensure a decent standard of living.
Unfortunately, the food companies' inflated profit margins also come at the expense of the environment: pesticide residues, soil erosion, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity and inhumane treatment of animals are all exacerbated by the industrial approach to agriculture favored by the major food companies.
The overviews and articles in this section explore these impacts of agribusiness concentration in greater depth, underscoring the need for fundamental reform of an industry structure that is clearly not sustainable -- politically, socially or environmentally -- in the medium term.
