HOW THE CORPORATIONS ARE BEING REMOVED FROM THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
The Poverty of Capitalism
The above quote is made by John Hilary, director of the NGO War on Want sums it all in his recent book The Poverty of Capitalism. The industrial food system is characterized by economic focus through an outgrowth of a long and on-going process that has allowed major agribusinesses—companies that supply the chemicals, seeds, equipment and services that are critical to industrial farms—to greatly determine and influence the modern food system. It’s estimated that in 2004 only 8% of farms in the US accounted for 72% of sales.
Further, the top ten seed firms were estimated to control the entire world seed market and the top ten agrochemical corporations controlled 84% of the $30 billion agrochemical market. Further, only six corporations – Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Syngenta, Bayer and BASF – control 75% of the world pesticides market, Factory farms now account for 72 percent of poultry production, 43 percent of egg production, and 55 percent of pork production worldwide and only four corporations – ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus – control more than 75% of the global grain trade who overwhelmingly push commodity crops like corn and soy on local farmers at the expense of native crops.
The major aim of most of these agri-corporations the world over is to earn profit through their operations. They are more concerned with their own interests and not those of the public. The policies of these organizations are usually profit oriented. The underlying policy is profit making leaving other superficial benefits constant. With the hegemony of transnational food corporations, food production has been reduced to becoming a model of profit generation instead of producing quality food production. Food is considered to be one of the basic requirements for humans to survive, and agriculture is one of the largest employers/ occupations in the world.
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