The global food system is owned by an ever smaller number of companies - it's damaging our health, our communities and t

The global food system is owned by an ever smaller number of companies – it’s damaging our health, our communities and the planet

Published: July 17, 2024 5.29pm BST

Across the world, over 800 million people spend their days hungry. More than 2 billion have limited access to food. Yet today’s global food system produces enough to feed every person on the planet.

This imbalanced situation can be explained in part by the effects of things like natural disasters, war, fragile supply chains and economic inequality. These are all significant factors which highlight the problems of a truly global food system, where shocks spread quickly from one place to another with sometimes devastating results.

But they do not provide the full picture and cannot fully explain the rise of ultra-processed foods, the financial difficulties facing farmers, or why the world has failed to address the harmful environmental impacts of food production.

To account for these trends, we need to look at market concentration, and how a small number of very big companies have come to dominate the production and supply of the food we all eat.

More:
https://theconversation.com/the-global-food-system-is-owned-by-an-ever-smaller-number-of-companies-its-damaging-our-health-our-communities-and-the-planet-232414