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Agriculture and farmers are facing a crisis on a global scale. The production of food is now a global enterprise with the price of food determined on the world commodity market rather than at the local or even national level. This global economy emphasises free trade and forces farmers around the world into competition with each other as the big supermarkets and food processors shop around the globe for the best price.
Consolidation in the global food system, led by mergers and acquisitions among American and European transnational firms, has created major corporate conglomerates whose market share affects international food prices, and whose political influence shapes government positions on key food policy issues. Oligopoly power in the global food and agriculture industry poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of farmers and food workers, to the long-term sustainability of food production, and to the availability of safe and nutritious food for consumers.
Increasing corporate control of the food and agriculture systems and the power imbalance which this creates between corporations and primary producers means that in order to survive farmers are under ever increasing pressure to intensify production and become ‘more efficient’: more animals in the same space, more milk output from the same number of cows or more tonnes per acre, cutting environmental and animal welfare corners to get more out of their land and animals. Almost 80% of the land mass in the UK is farmed, hence the environmental impact of increasing the area of intensively farmed land is very significant.
In the UK, the big four supermarkets control over 80% of food retailing. This massive concentration in the food retailing sector has produced a situation in which a small number of large supermarket chains have substantial power over both farmers and consumers. As a result of this bargaining power, the price paid to producers, the ‘farmgate price’, is frequently less than the cost of production. For virtually every commodity in 2002, the UK farmgate price was less than the cost of production. Only the largest, most mechanised farms will survive in this climate. Government ministers expect that by 2005 the number of farms will have declined by 25%. This decline is expected to be predominantly among small and family farmers yet, as indicated in a report by the US Department of Agriculture, small and family farmers are better at managing the environment, are more directly involved in local communities and put more back into the rural economy than do large farmers.
We seek to change this power imbalance and ensure the profits in the food system are shared along the supply chain. Working collaboratively with farmers and other civil society groups at the local, national, regional and international levels, in the short-medium term we aim to raise public awareness and to identify and propose solutions to curb the power of food corporations. In the longer term this will create more space for a more just and democratic food system to emerge. The way in which food is produced and consumed is a debate in which everyone has a right to participate.
As well as looking at competition regulation by consulting lawyers and other experts we are also looking at other regulatory ideas especially with campaigners from other countries. We are also looking to make more radical structural ideas such as food sovereignty and supply management acceptable solutions to the current problem. The continuation of trade liberalisation policies and the failure to curb the power of the food corporations will in our view have a devastating social and environmental impact not only in the UK, but around the world.
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