Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?

by Philip H Howard, David Goodman (Series Editor), Michael K. Goodman (Series Editor)

Nearly every day brings news of another merger or acquisition involving the companies that control our food supply. Just how concentrated has this system become? At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market, a level above which these companies have the power to drive up prices for consumers and reduce their rate of innovation. Researchers have identified additional problems resulting from these trends, including negative impacts on the environment, human health, and communities.

This book reveals the dominant corporations, from the supermarket to the seed industry, and the extent of their control over markets. It also analyzes the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power, particularly in terms of their bearing upon the more vulnerable sections of society, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Yet this study also shows that these trends are not inevitable. Opposed by numerous efforts, from microbreweries to seed saving networks, it explores how such opposition has encouraged the most powerful firms to make small but positive changes.

Genres: Food, Politics, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2015

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

For years, I've been seeing bubble charts of mergers, acquisitions, and equity swaps in the food industry. Many of these were Phil Howard's work, and his 2016 publication, Concentration and Power in the Food System provides the story behind these graphic representations of how the food system is being controlled by fewer entities.

Concern over growing corporate control of food and how that translates into growing economic disparity and political oligarchy is nothing new. Over a hundred years ago, the populist and progressive movements each took on the monopolies and trusts that used unfair business practices to exploit farmers and consumers. Howard shows how these reforms became increasingly ineffective as the result of political changes that favored growing inequality and concentration of wealth, combined with new technologies and innovations that are owned by a small handful of companies.

Howard follows the work of Patricia Allen, Julie Guthman, Melanie DuPuis, Amy Guptill and others who write about the 'conventionalization' of organic food, which posits that standardization and regulations have led to a corporate takeover of the organic food system divorced from the principles of organic agriculture, particularly the organic community's original socio-economic intent to replace the corporate-controlled food system with a decentralized, fairer distribution system through producer and consumer cooperatives, and community supported agriculture.

Many of the organic pioneers were entrepreneurs and capitalists, so it would be historically inaccurate to claim that organic was an anti-capitalist movement. Concentration and Power in the Food System devotes a chapter to the takeover of organic pioneers by the very companies that they sought to displace, with accounts of the ironic remorse expressed by the "sell-outs", particularly Steve Demos of White Wave. While I am a skeptic of the conventionalization hypothesis, I have to admit that the alternative "bifurcation" and "convergence" hypotheses both leave a lot to be desired. None of these three theories capture all that is happening within the organic food sector these days, in my opinion.

Howard is a thorough scholar. The work drags in places, but he livens things up with humorous references to popular culture. Sometimes this device works and sometimes it doesn't. Like so many scholarly works on current affairs, the work was out of date by the time it hit the press as a result of the relentless rate of corporate takeovers and mergers. Signs of continued corporate consolidation stay in the news. Bayer-Monsanto merger comes to mind. The conclusion or "Endgame" as he calls it is a disappointment. He holds out hope for the alternatives being developed through re-skilling artisan food producers, seed saving, and community food systems. This is essentially the bifurcation hypothesis, and he lacks the specifics on how such an approach can be viable and grow beyond a niche to be a serious challenge to the dominant paradigm. Like so many others who support the conventionalization hypothesis, Howard tends toward a gloomy economic determinism. The best he can come up with for a happy ending—to spoil the punchline—is that the entire system may collapse based on its own greed and short-sightedness.

Concentration and Power in the Food System is an important guide to understanding both what is driving the consolidation of corporate control of the food system. Howard is one of the leading thinkers of the trends in the modern food system.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

See review at https://edsteffes.me/2016/10/19/conce...

[Daria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a solid academic overview of the problem. While it focuses heavily on the U.S., the strategies employed by the Big Food companies are likely similar globally.

For those seeking a broader perspective that incorporates global dynamics and examines how corporate concentration undermines the transformation of food systems toward sustainability, these recent papers are worth exploring:

• Clapp, Jennifer. (2021). The problem with growing corporate concentration and power in the global food system. Nature Food, 2, 1-5. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00297-7
• Béné, Christophe. (2022). Why the Great Food Transformation may not happen – A deep-dive into our food systems’ political economy, controversies and politics of evidence. World Development, 154, Article 105881. doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105881

[Claudia Yahany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para historias personales, muchos otros autores. Sin embargo, este es un panorama completo y claro de la industria de la comida—desde el involucramiento irresponsable del gobierno, el siempre podrido interés económico y el poder inmenso que no dejan de ejercer los jugadores más grandes.

Hay que estar enterados, tomar decisiones conscientes y proteger la naturaleza.. si no es por los arbolitos, al menos por el bienestar común. La comida barata es la más cara. Y si de plano somos egoístas (aunque a nadie nos guste reconocerlo), al menos elegir los mejores sabores.

Deberíamos de enseñar política en la educación básica.

[Mikey Burdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book was very interesting and insightful, I found it to be very boring in some manners and very odd to be classified as an Essay, I wish there was more said about the actually process in which food goes in but based on the title that’s not what it’s about. But it has given me the urge to watch Unwrapped though.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every bit as dry as it sounds, but clear, concise, and very informative. Stimulated a great conversation in a reading group today.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to be a more informed food consumer. The depth of insight this book gives into the web of our highly connected food systems cannot be overemphasized. For such a short book, it educates in a highly-readable format that books 3x its size fail to do.