“Corporate power in food systems is so concentrated that a relatively small group of people shape what is grown, how it is grown, labour conditions, prices and food choices in a way that serves the ultimate goal of profit maximization and not the public good.”
This is one of the key findings from the UN special report on ‘Corporate power and human rights in food systems’ that has recently been published.
Among many interesting findings, the special report highlights that:
– The recent increase in food prices reflects the high concentration of suppliers’ market power.
– Food inflation is principally caused by transnational corporations raising prices at rates that exceed increased costs and risks.
– Many transnational agrifood companies are more in the business of selling edible commodities rather than good food.
– Many companies specifically target lower-income countries with unhealthy products, while often pushing healthier foodstuffs in wealthier countries.
These are all very pressing social concerns. However, they can’t be taken out of the context of the environmental impacts of the food industry. While there are many documented negative externalities related to today’s food systems, the report highlights the fact that agriculture is the leading cause of biodiversity loss and that industrial food systems rely heavily on plastic packaging.
However, most of the findings are nothing new. For many decades, we have been given clear warnings of the increasing influence of corporate power and its negative effects on people and the planet.
As a result, we are in a situation where: “Corporations are shaping food policy because of their growing political influence, which weakens democratic participation.”
And here is one good example of the result of such influence: In the EU, “Approximately 80 per cent of Common Agricultural Policy funds go to the largest 20 per cent of farms, typically meat and dairy producers. As a result, the European Union lost 5.3 million farms between 2005 and 2020 (a 37 per cent decline), primarily small-scale farmers.”
While we are spending an enormous amount of energy and resources on debating these issues from the political and ideological stands, we are forgetting that our limits are not ideological; they are biological and ecological.
Hence, the most important phrase for me to highlight from the UN’s special report is that:
Without fertile soil, the world cannot eat.
Ours and future generations’ food security relies on us finding ways to ACT NOW, away from further deterioration of the soil quality, which intrinsically relates to biodiversity, water quality, and human health, among others.
While the effects may be global, the impacts of agriculture are always local. Therefore, without including the local communities and small farmers into the decision-making processes that will empower them to run a profitable enterprise, the food systems will remain detached from the on-the-ground day-to-day reality.
Without empowering small-scale farmers, food systems will remain largely subject to market speculation and political power plays.
One of the key elements of this process starts by promoting regenerative agriculture practice. This way, we will get closer to making people “native to the planet once more by re-establishing a positive link between human activity and natural systems.”
(In 2020, I wrote a post Through ‘More Local’ to ‘More Europe’, and it saddens me to see how much time we have wasted getting stuck in the depletive mindset instead of seeking more symbiotic relationships among us and the Web of Life)
Boris Matijas 