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Agribusiness Accountability Initiative Network in Africa
AAI seeks to create a space for generating "whole" responses to corporate power greater than the sum of existing regional or stakeholder-based efforts, and is currently working with regional networks in Europe, North and South America, and is planning a forum to establish an Asian network in early 2006. It is our hope that such a network can be formed in Africa as well.
Goals for the AAI Africa Network
In a world where the market power and political influence of transnational food companies increasingly threatens the capacity of the food system to feed the world's people in a sustainable manner it is vital respond to the influence of those companies on many different levels.
The goals of the AAI Network in Africa are three-fold:
- Clear definition of a 10-12 person African AAI steering committee with representation from each of the 6 major stakeholder groups -- farm, labor, environment, consumer, faith, development -- and a commitment from them to information-sharing within Asia and liaison with other regional AAI networks.
- Clarity on the role of the African AAI facilitator -- linkage to the AAI secretariat, to the African steering committee and to any African working groups.
- Launch of cross-stakeholder working groups (at least two groups) on priority issues (advocacy or research) of common interest.
Background on AAI's network
Increasing market power and political influence of transnational food companies threaten the capacity of the food system to feed the world's people in a sustainable manner. Thanks to mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, a small handful of giant companies dominate every sector of the food chain.1 In seeds, fertilizers and agri-chemicals, five companies (Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Bayer and Syngenta) have such a large share of global markets that they can determine how and where different crops will be grown. They work closely with the three companies (Cargill, Bunge and Archer Daniels Midland) that together control 90% of the global grain trade - a remarkable statistic, since 75% of all human food consumption is grain-based. Similar levels of concentrated ownership exist in meat-packing (Tyson, Smithfield, Cargill), dairy (Kraft, Dean), food manufacturing (ConAgra, Kraft, Nestle, Unilever) and food retail (Walmart). Through campaign contributions, massive lobbying budgets and "revolving door" appointments to key government positions, these firms also have disproportionate influence on international policies regarding agricultural trade and public regulation of the food system.
Despite the 1996 World Food Summit commitment of governments to halve the number of hungry people by 2015, hunger is actually increasing.2 Meanwhile, the living standards of farmers, agricultural workers, meat packers and supermarket clerks are threatened by the bargaining power of big companies that force down wages and bust unions. Yet consumers do not benefit from lower farm prices and cheaper labor: since 1970, the price of food in the US has risen steadily with inflation, but the farmer's share of the food retail dollar has fallen from 37% to 20%.3 And the same technologies that make more money for food companies - genetically modified crops, factory livestock farms, and dependence on agri-chemicals - create public health hazards for consumers and environmental risks for future food production.
Farm, labor, environment, consumer, church and development organizations around the world are well aware of these imbalances, and have developed campaigns and advocacy efforts to address various problems created by corporate control of the food system. Yet given the enormity of the structural problem, as well as the limited resources of civil society organizations, there is a tremendous need for improved information-sharing among social change groups around the world - both about the structure and impacts of the agri-food industry, and about each other's existing efforts to confront these impacts. Moreover, there is a need for the space and opportunity for civil society groups to engage in joint strategic planning and collaboration-building exercises to maximize their capacity to build a "whole" response to corporate power "greater than the sum of its parts." AAI exists to address these needs.
AAI has established regional groups and working groups that have identified key issues that a variety of stakeholders work together to challenge. AAI's methodology for catalyzing this process has traditionally involved the following steps:
- Identify key leaders of farm, labor, environment, consumer, church and development organizations that have identified agri-food industry power as a key issue;
- Invite a dozen or so of these leaders from across a given region to begin an electronic and telephone discussion of the potential for cross-constituency collaboration to challenge corporate control of the food system;
- Encourage these leaders to identify other key stakeholders in their respective networks, and to plan a regional forum meeting on the topic;
- Structure a forum agenda to maximize the sharing of information regarding the impacts of corporate power on food in the region, and existing civil society research, advocacy, campaigns and public education efforts to confront the food industry.
Notes:
1 All data cited on market share are available on AAI's website at www.agribusinessaccountability.org.
2 http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2004/51809/index.html
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"It has become increasingly clear in the past quarter century that almost all aspects of the global food system are dominated by a combination of corporate agribusiness, wealthy people in both industrialized and developing countries, and the financial institutions and national governments that guide and support them... Much of this power is exercised without accountability... Such exercise is basically undemocratic and unethical. It must be challenged and changed." Martin McLaughlin, World Food Security
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