Concentration And Power In The Food System

Download or read book Concentration and Power in the Food System written by Philip H. Howard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly every day brings news of another merger or acquisition involving the companies that control our food supply. Just how concentrated has this system become? At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% 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. Researchers have identified additional problems resulting from these trends, including negative impacts on the environment, human health, and communities. This book reveals the dominant corporations, from the supermarket to the seed industry, and the extent of their control over markets. It also analyzes the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power, particularly in terms of their bearing upon the more vulnerable sections of society, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Yet this study also shows that these trends are not inevitable. Opposed by numerous efforts, from microbreweries to seed saving networks, it explores how such opposition has encouraged the most powerful firms to make small but positive changes.

Download or read book Concentration and Power in the Food System written by Philip H. Howard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who controls what we eat? This book reveals how dominant corporations, from the supermarket to the seed industry, exert control over contemporary food systems. It analyzes the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power, particularly in terms of their bearing upon the more vulnerable sections of society, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Yet this study also shows that these trends are not inevitable. Opposed by numerous efforts, from microbreweries to seed saving networks, it explores how opposition to this has encouraged even the most powerful firms to make small but positive changes. This revised edition has been updated to reflect recent developments in the food system, as well as the broad political economic forces that shape them. It also examines the rapidly changing technologies, such as Big Data and automation, which have the potential to reinforce, as well as to challenge, the power of the largest firms.

Download or read book Global Food Systems, Diets, and Nutrition written by Jessica Fanzo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-06-05 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ensuring optimal diets and nutrition for the global population is a grand challenge fraught with many contentious issues. To achieve food security for all and protect health, we need functional, equitable, and sustainable food systems. Food systems are highly complex networks of individuals and institutions that depend on governance and policy leadership. This book explains how interconnected food systems and policies affect diets and nutrition in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. In tandem with food policy, food systems determine the availability, affordability, and nutritional quality of the food supply, which influences the diets that people are willing and able to consume. Readers will become familiar with both domestic and international food policy processes and actors, and they will be able to critically analyze and debate how policy and science affect diet and nutrition outcomes.

Download or read book A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

Download or read book Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers written by Sapna Elizabeth Thottathil and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutions like schools, hospitals, and universities are not well known for having quality, healthy food. In fact, institutional food often embodies many of the worst traits of our industrialized food system, with long supply chains that are rife with environmental and social problems and growing market concentration in many stages of food production and distribution. Recently, however, non-profit organizations, government agencies, university research institutes, and activists have partnered with institutions to experiment with a wide range of more ethical and sustainable models for food purchasing, also known as values-based procurement. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers brings together in-depth case studies from several of promising models of institutional food purchasing that aim to be more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and local. With chapters written by a diverse set of authors, including leaders in the food movement and policy researchers, this book: - Documents growing interest among non-profit organizations and activists in institutional food interventions through case studies and first-hand experiences; - Highlights emerging evidence about how these new procurement models affect agro-food supply chains; and - Examines the role of policy and regional or geographic identity in promoting food systems change. Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers makes the case that institutions can use their budgets to change the food system for the better, although significant challenges remain. It is a must read for food systems practitioners, food chain researchers, and foodservice professionals interested in values-based procurement.

Download or read book The Food System written by Geoff Tansey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food is a massive industry and the many key players involved have very different interests. In wealthy nations those interests can range from corporate survival and maintaining profitability in a market with limited demand, to promoting a healthy diet and ensuring food safety. For the poor, the emphasis is all too often on simply getting enough to eat. As information technology and biotechnology are set to revolutionize the food system, it is essential to understand the broad context in which the different actors operate, so that all the world's people can enjoy a safe, secure, sufficient and sustainable food supply. This text provides an overview of today's dominant food system - one developed in and controlled by northern industrialized countries, and one that is becoming increasingly globalized.

Download or read book Civic Agriculture written by Thomas A. Lyson and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2012-05-22 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A engaging analysis of food production in the United States emphasizing that sustainable agricultural development is important to community health.