[vox_mundi]

Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?
NEW BOOK REVEALS THAT FOOD MONOPOLIES ARE EVERYWHERE

Most people know about fast food and big beer monopolies. Many people don’t know, though, that many craft beers are actually owned by big breweries, and margarine – yes, margarine – is nearly a monopolized market, said Phil Howard, associate professor of community, agriculture, recreation and resource studies, and author of Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?

“At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40 percent 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,” he said. “These trends are often hidden from most of us – and even from people who work in these industries – because acquisitions may not result in changes of brand names.”

Here are some examples: Walmart rules retailing, owning 33 percent of the U.S. market; AB InBev dominates more than 46 percent of the U.S. beer market; and Monsanto controls 26 percent of the international seed market. In the dairy case, Unilever accounts for more than 51 percent of sales of margarine while ConAgra accounts for nearly 17 percent of all U.S. sales.

“In terms of margarine, the corporations’ power is hidden from us through an illusion of numerous competing brands,” Howard said. “There’s a deliberate attempt to obscure how much shelf space is controlled by just a few corporations.”

The book identifies dominant corporations and supermarket chains and shows the extent of their control over markets. It also analyses the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power.

“The book covers how corporations influence vulnerable populations, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and people with lower socioeconomic status,” Howard said.

Table Of Contents
1. Food System Concentration: A Political Economy Perspective
2. Reinterpreting Antitrust: Retailing
3. Structuring Dependency: Distribution
4. Engineering Consumption: Packaged Foods and Beverages
5. Manipulating Prices: Commodity Processing
6. Subsidizing the Treadmill: Farming and Ranching
7. Enforcing the New Enclosures: Agricultural Inputs
8. Standardizing Resistance: The Organic Food Chain
9. Endgame?

[careinke]

Although all of the above is probably true, I like to think I control what I eat. Everyone should try it, it is quite liberating, almost anarchistic.

[onlooker]

This trend of consolidation of power and monopoly actually covers a wide spectrum and in fact can be amalgamated to show that in reality just a few mega corporations and a few majority stake holders control much of the worlds economy especially the Western world. For those who have the time and inclination look it up, you may be surprised. I have found it fascinating like going into Alice in wonderlland rabbit hole. That is where I get my ideas of Cabal and similar ones because all roads lead to the conclusion that power and wealth have over time consolidated more and more.

[onlooker]

I think Trump is the real face of the Corptocracy. Racist, Xenophobic, power hungry, greedy, narcissistic and deceitful. Did I leave some nice characteristic out?

[onlooker]

Well I never took part in any spelling bee contest haha.

[Cog]

I think Trump is the real face of the Corptocracy. Racist, Xenophobic, power hungry, greedy, narcissistic and deceitful. Did I leave some nice characteristic out?

Successful?

[Cog]

You don't have the right to protest at a private event. You can protest all you want outside the venue that Trump paid for. The man who slugged the protestor has been arrested for assault. What more do you want?

Seems like the post I was responding to went by-bye. Probably due to the foul language and personal attacks. Oh well.

[careinke]

It seems only logical that in a free market, wealth and power will ultimately concentrate ever more completely until only 1 entity owns the world. Of course the dynamic is delayed by industrial progress and new territories to conquer, but finally when there is no more technologic advance or new lands, then the concentration will complete.

Is Trump that single entity? Bezos? Job's ghost? lol

Haven't you ever played Monopoly? It's the same thing, eventually someone wins everything. The good part is then the rest of the players can quit playing. After all, it is just a game, and you don't have to play.

[Subjectivist]

I think Trump is the real face of the Corptocracy. Racist, Xenophobic, power hungry, greedy, narcissistic and deceitful. Did I leave some nice characteristic out?

Sounds like a perfect description of Hillary Clinton to me.

[SeaGypsy]

I think Trump is the real face of the Corptocracy. Racist, Xenophobic, power hungry, greedy, narcissistic and deceitful. Did I leave some nice characteristic out?

Sounds like a perfect description of Hillary Clinton to me.

Yep, they are both pretty awful, but it's looking like pick your poison & at least Trump is responsive to the people while Hillary is a flat out corporate gimp.

[Paulo1]

In our house, we control what we eat. The greenhouse starts are thriving and we are eating spring salads. The freezers are still full of fish, chicken and salmon. New layers are thriving and broiler chicks are ordered. We bake our own bread. This is on a 1/2 acre homesite, the spuds and squash are grown on our woodlot property across the road.

You can do a hell of a lot of growing on 1/2 acre. My grandparents from Minnesota virtually grew all their vegetables for a family of 7 on their 1/2 acre. Mind you, they did this in the Depression when people tended to be a bit more focused and less self-indulgent with their 'wants' and immediate gratifications.

If you have no place to grow food, seek out local producers and support neighbours. There are ways to eat healthy.

[C8]

Ahhh... the cozy comfort of a tidy conspiracy theory- so perfect, so clean, so warm and fuzzy

[GHung]

As Paulo said, some of us at least try to take control of where our food comes from. We grow some of what we eat, buy locally, or pay attention to who actually owns the means of production. I no longer buy Smithfield products (it's a long list of familiar brands) since the Chinese bought Smithfield in 2013. Just didn't sit well with me.

We don't buy margarine; real butter for us, and we buy Cabot Creamery butter and other products. Cabot Creamery is part of the Agri-Mark Cooperatives, a collection of cooperatives adhering to the "Rochdale Principles" :

"The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world continue to operate. The implications of the Rochdale Principles are a focus of study in co-operative economics. The original Rochdale Principles were officially adopted by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in 1937 as the Rochdale Principles of Co-operation. Updated versions of the principles were adopted by the ICA in 1966 as the Co-operative Principles and in 1995 as part of the Statement on the Co-operative Identity.[1]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Principles

Most of our beef comes from Brasstown Beef http://www.brasstownbeef.com in western North Carolina; a little pricey but we don't eat a great deal of beef, and it's outstanding quality. Look for co-ops and local producers in your area. I make an excellent lasagne using locally grown and produced Italian sausage and venison harvested within 1000 yards of the house; I put up about 90 pounds this year.

Point is, we still have options. Best to support those options while they are still around.

[vox_mundi]

It's all connected ...

theyrule.net – interlocking boards

http://www.theyrule.net/ is an online tool where you can map and visualize corporate board (of director) interlocks. You can look up specific people or simply play around and click to see various interlocks. Try 'Popular Maps', or just use the “auto”-mode and watch. Video

Interlocking Directorates in the Corporate Community

[Outcast_Searcher]

Although all of the above is probably true, I like to think I control what I eat. Everyone should try it, it is quite liberating, almost anarchistic.

Excellent point. (You stole my line (which I highlighted in blue), but that's OK).
For me, I have recently changed two health habits, apparently for a big benefit and only moderate work.

1). Eating better, primarily paying lots of attention to avoiding too much sodium.

2). Exercising more, primarily balancing joint health (a long term issue for me) and getting "enough" moderate exercise.

The primary angle of both is to lower my blood pressure, which continues to rise over the years when I mostly ignore these things. Early results look very promising, but time will tell more.

So, I've been studying nutrition, to help me make more informed choices. One very helpful thing, IMO, is the recent ruling to require all chain restaurants with 20 or more stores to provide meaningful nutrition information. This seems to be forcing very good/completel nutritional PDF's being made available online for virtually all large chain restaurants I've looked up in recent weeks. It also seems to be getting a moderate amount of smaller local/regional outfits to voluntarily produce far more nutrition information than in past years. (I presume this is pressure/requests from customers who point out their competition is doing this).

Though the compliance date slipped six months to Dec. 1, 2016, apparently this is largely in effect already.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPack ... 248732.htm

So, despite all the complaining about the food cabal, food monopolies, etc., there is a LOT of nutritional information out there on what food you buy. And there is a LOT of competition for providing food where there are good transportation networks. And in most climates, you can grow some of your own, buy locally sourced, buy organic, etc.

I know it's all doom all the time around here, but really, for people willing to make a reasonable effort, they have a lot of control over what they eat.