Big Ag, Big Data, Big Finance — New Frontiers for the Food Industry

Over the past few years, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the pandemic has allowed the food industry to ‘take a risky profit’. These gains have also led to a new round of corporate concentration in the food industry. The direction agribusiness is taking globally offers a lot to ‘bite’.

As such, says a report published by the ETC Group, a respected, small, international research and action group that advocates for just, ecological agro-food systems.

A recently published report titled Food Barons 2022: Crisis profiteering, digitization and shifting powerpresents the global landscape in 10 key areas of our food and farming system, identifies key corporate players in each, and measures how concentrated their power is. From agrochemicals, seeds, synthetic fertilizers, livestock genetics and agricultural machinery to food retail and distribution systems, there are just four to six companies operating in each sector.

Twenty-five years ago, the ETC Group reported that just 10 companies controlled 40% of the seed industry. Fast forward to today and he’s the only two companies in the seed industry that dominate the same market share. for each sector, Food Barons 2022 It documents the concentration of companies in the global food system with astonishing facts and figures.

The report, with its eerily beautiful cover, reads like science fiction, but that’s wishful thinking.

Food Barons 2022 We also delve into the deeper implications of the concentration of companies associated with the digitalization of agriculture. Industrial Food Systems promises that technology and “precision agriculture” will result in cleaner, more productive and healthier food systems.

To use the old farm phrase, who hopes this pig will rally to our zeal to find ways to mitigate climate change, offset carbon, and boost sustainability and food production. On the other hand, the report’s authors point out that this is yet another green revolution false promise. Food Barons 2022 An attempt to get the cat out of the bag.

full report of Food Barons 2022 137 pages. The short reading is a 42-page summary. Whatever option you choose, these documents give you a lot to think about. Also, each section of the report has a capsule under the section that says “chew this”.

In addition to the concentration of companies, the report also documents the increasing use of big data and its impact on agriculture globally. The report ties corporate concentration to land acquisition, venture capital speculation in agriculture, digitization and big data in agriculture, and the promise that technology will provide the solution.

“We digitize food and agriculture from farm to door. The landscape of new digital initiatives in food and agriculture is dizzying. On farms, this includes collaborative attempts to impose digital farming, weaving drone sprayers, artificial intelligence-driven robotic planters, and automated animal feeding operations tricked with livestock facial recognition. Leading Ags such as Bayer, Deere & Company, Corteva, Syngenta, and Nutrien are restructuring their entire operations around big data platforms. Bayer’s “FieldView” digital platform, for example, allows him to extract 87.5 billion data points from his 180 million acres (78.2 million hectares) of farmland in 23 countries, which he distributes to the Microsoft and Amazon clouds. of servers.17 Deere, the world’s largest agricultural machinery company, currently employs more software engineers than mechanical engineers.-Food Barons 2022

The report states: “Thus, the driving purpose of the food system moves ever further away from feeding people to feeding profits.”

Food Barons 2022 We’ve identified three key trends: big farming, big data, and big finance, so readers have a lot to think about. While the information may be overwhelming, the report also offers an optimistic note as it informs the organizing of a global movement working to counter current trends in corporate farming. .

This report reminds readers that: Exploitation and technological appropriation of land and water in the commons. Peasant Food Web aims to promote the concentration and unfair advantage detailed in this report through exciting diversifying and proliferating territorial food initiatives that redistribute and share the inherent power of the sun, soil, seeds and animals. Provides essential counterweight to tough narratives. People — feeding billions of people. “

Food Barons 2022 It is one of the documents that provides the information needed by these forums and global movements to understand the depth of focus and the latest trends in food system management encouraged by the corporate world. will be used.

The report also contains optimism by providing a section on conclusions and key action recommendations. Some are listed below.

• Support food sovereignty: The authors of the report recognize the food sovereignty movement as an effective means of challenging the current direction of large-scale agriculture, and in particular the proceedings of conferences held through the International Programs Commission on Food Sovereignty. I’m looking at the plans inside. A Global Forum on Food Sovereignty is planned for March 2023 to facilitate the new edition of the Nireni Process. During the meetings leading up to these conferences and forums, we created conversations and brought together thousands of people, farmers, small-scale fishers, indigenous peoples, consumers, non-governmental organizations and academics to find the next solutions. and proposed priorities. His 25 years in the food sovereignty movement. Bringing together labor, health, consumer, environmental and agricultural movements is key to supporting food sovereignty.
• Withdrawing from the chain: As the report notes, the financialization of agriculture by the giant companies mentioned in the report could be challenged. “…schools, universities, pension funds, local governments, and other public institutions investing in identified companies are encouraged to withdraw funds from specific food barons and even disruptive industrial food chains as a whole. Long-term support for agroecology and food sovereignty…”The report also said: The grassroots climate change movement has successfully singled out fossil fuel companies as an obstacle to meaningful climate action. The food movement should follow suit…”
• Antitrust and competition treaties: A key recommendation is to pressure governments with competition laws to apply and update legislation that strengthens antitrust laws. The report adds that calling for an international treaty on competition “could enable international scrutiny of corporate power (including Food Barons) to the best of its ability.”

And while the task of taking on the Food Barons may seem daunting, the report ends on a positive note in a section called The Last Word.

“…It may be daunting to imagine fighting the Food Baron, but their power is not inevitable. less than a third of the world eats it.. They are backed by capital giants and have a claw in about 10% of the global economy, powering the industrial food chain with new technologies and clever false promises. These companies, under the control of an increasingly small number of entities, are more exposed and more likely to go bankrupt.”

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