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Global Agribusiness

Our Global Food System

To many of us who live in industrialized cities, farming seems like an anachronistic way of life. Food comes from supermarket shelves, not from seeds, soil and human labor. And yet, despite the global economic and political pressures on small- and medium-scale farmers, 70 percent of the world’s population still earn a living by producing food.

Agribusiness is a term used to describe a global industry that is involved in all aspects of food production, processing and distribution. Some agribusiness companies sell seeds, machinery, fertilizers and pesticides; others process and transport grains; some convert raw materials into processed foods; and several companies have a hand in every step. In recent decades, there has been a rapid consolidation of agribusiness companies that sell seeds and fertilizers and those that buy, sell and transport grain.

The increasing concentration and expansion of the global agribusiness industry poses a threat to food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the right of individuals, communities and countries to define their own food, agriculture, fishing, labor and land policies. Biodiversity, sustainable food production, and the livelihoods of small family farmers are also threatened as agribusiness consolidates more power.

Source: RAN - People's Rights vs. Agribusiness

Key resources:

 

Agribusiness connections in Austraila

Below are three examples of large and poweful companies connected to the hidden processes behind our everyday food products. Increasingly, a small number of global corporations are dominating each part of the supply-chain, and in some cases, controlling many parts.

You can see two versions of our 'work in progress' Who Controls our Food chart which explores the companies who are main players here in Australia and in the global sphere. V 1. V 2 (flash).

 

  • Grain & commodities - Cargill
    Cargill, the world’s largest commodity trading company, is dominant in the grain and seed market, but also produces, processes and distributes animal feed, and the pork and beef they feed with it. In Australia, Cargill supplies oilseed, grain, sugar, livestock feed, pharmaceuticals, and is our fourth largest beef processor. Cargill has been criticised as a major buyer of cotton in Uzbekistan, and for deforesting Amazon rainforest in order to produce soy.
    • Key resources
    • Cargil takeover news:
    • Cargil involvements/owns in Australia:
      • Beef - second largest player, 12% of market - processing operations in Wagga Wagga & Tamworth and a feedlot at Stockinbingal, NSW.
      • Cotton- using Monsantos GE Bt
      • Food ingredients - sweeteners, lecithins, processing aids
      • Allied Mills is a joint venture between Cargill and Graincorp, providing bread and speciality flours - third largest player with 15% of market
      • processes over 600,000 tonnes of canola, cottonseed, sunflower seed and soybeans annually in Australia to produce protein meal for animal feed and vegetable oil for foods such as margarine, salad dressings and frying.
      • vegetable oil refinery in Newcastle, NSW
      • subsiary Australian Grain Accumulation acts as the buying agent for grain and oilseeds
      • now owns Australian Wheat Board, since Dec 2010 (not including Landmark, kept by Agrium)

       

  • Beef - JBS-Swift
    JBS-Swift, the biggest Brazilian beef packer, recently purchased Australia Meat Holdings (the largest beef processor in Australia) and multi-species processors the Tasman Group and Rockdale Beef. JBS-Swift accounts for 10% of the cattle slaughtered in the world and, like Cargill, has been criticised for clearing forests in South America for animal feed production. More, see wikipedia:JBS.
  • Chemicals & Seeds - Monsanto
    The world’s six largest agrochemical manufacturers (BASF, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow) are also seed industry giants. They collectively control around half of the proprietary seed market and 75 per cent of the global agrochemical market. The world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, accounts for almost one-quarter (23%) of the global seed market and is responsible for 90% of the world’s genetically modified seed. More, see wikipedia:Monsanto

 

In the light of this daunting trend of corporate concentration, it is worth noting that 85% of global food is still consumed close to where it is grown - much of it outside the formal market system. Three-quarters of the world’s farmers still routinely save seed from their harvest and grow locally-bred varieties.

 

What can you do?

Food sovereignty is the right of individuals, communities and countries to define their own food, agriculture, fishing, labor and land policies. Powerful movements around the world are fighting to make food sovereignty a basic human right.

"There is vast and growing resistance to the dislocation and devastation caused by the agro-industrial food system. In the global struggle for Food Sovereignty, the playing field isn’t level, but the scope of resistance is massive - peasant farmers, fisher people, pastoralists and allied civil society and social movements are fighting for locally controlled and socially just food and health systems."

Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group

Campaigns combined with consumer action is a powerful tool for bringing about corporate responsibility. Recent victories include Nestle, General Mills, Unilever and Kraft pledging to clean up their palm oil supply chains, and Kimberly-Clark promising to reduce their use of native forest pulp in their products.

» You can become an online activist. Sign petitions and write to companies asking them to stop exploitative practices. See our Campaigns page to get involved.

 

Further key resources