The Power to Choose Your Food
By Mary Hendrickson
Phone: (573) 882-7463
E-mail: hendricksonm@missouri.edu
May 2004
If asked, most of us would say that
we chose our food today. We decided
what to eat based on taste, price, availability, and convenience, among other
things. We might have even selected
foods consistent with our values – organic or vegetarian fare, for
instance. While, in most cases, we feel in control of our food choices, a
deeper look at the global food system can prove enlightening. Who decided what, where and how our food was
grown? Who produced it? Who marketed it? Who gets to eat it? Who is affected by
what we eat? Our personal decision to eat a hamburger rests on an incredibly
complex prior chain of decision-making that brought that food to the table.
That decision also gives us the power to change the very system that led us
there. A seemingly simple choice about what we eat on a daily basis can promote
long-term positive changes for the health of our communities and the
surrounding landscape.
To see where decisions are made in
the food system, we must first understand that system. The forces that shape our food system are
horizontal and vertical integration, combined with globalized food production
and consumption.
Horizontal integration is an old
strategy that occurs when companies expand in one particular sector through
acquisitions or mergers. For example
ConAgra, the world’s fourth largest food processor, recently sold its poultry
operations to Pilgrim’s Pride, making the latter the number two broiler
processor in the U.S. This means that
Pilgrim’s Pride, along with 3 other competitors, now has more than half of the
broiler market share. When four or
fewer firms control 40 percent or more of an industry’s market, that sector
loses characteristics of a competitive market.
Unfortunately for consumers, in most U.S. commodities today, four or
fewer companies control 50 to 80 percent of the market share.
How can farmers or consumers make
independent decisions about what they produce and eat, when:
·
Four firms slaughter 81
percent of the beef in the U.S., 59 percent of the pork, and more than 50
percent of the broilers.
·
Three firms move virtually all
the grain – e.g. wheat, corn, and soybeans – that moves between nations.
·
Five firms sell more than 50
percent of American groceries.
Vertical integration, which occurs
when firms create direct lines of control from one stage of the food system to
another, is also an old strategy with a new twist. Research from 1999 shows the evolution of food system clusters,
which dominate our food system from producing the genetic material of the seeds
and breeds all the way through to transportation to our grocery shelves. In these clusters, several dominant firms
link together nationally and globally through joint ventures, partnerships,
side agreements and the like. Many of
the complex decisions about what food we eat are decided by the management
teams and boards of directors of six to ten firms embedded in these clusters.
When players in the food system
operate from such a position of power, farmers, consumers and their communities
lose opportunities to make choices. For
instance, now that five seed companies – Aventis, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto and
Syngenta – provide most of the world’s seed for our major crops, farmers have
little choice in what to plant.
Moreover, five or six dominant global food manufacturers – including
Nestle, Kraft, ConAgra and Unilever – are constantly trying to shape our food
choices. With just a few major food
retailers worldwide, the purchasing managers at Wal-Mart, Ahold, Kroger and
Tesco influence what we find available to eat.
Relationships between farmers and
consumers, processors and supermarkets, government and business are changed
when major decisions about food are made by those operating within just a few
firms. Decisions about food – besides
water, the most essential and necessary element of life – are no longer made by
governments, or the households they represent.
Instead decisions about who farms and who eats have moved from the
potentially transparent and public arena of households, communities and
governments to the private realm of a few boardrooms around the world. More importantly, food decisions no longer
rest primarily on taste, quality, nutrition, security and culture, but rather
involve the bottom line of where and how food can be produced the cheapest and
sold for the most profit.
How can you change the way
decisions are made in the food system?
First, you can vote with your dollars.
Buying your food from a farmer whose face you can see and whose farm you
can visit ensures that decisions about food production and consumption are
negotiated between the two of you.
Shopping at a farmers’ market, stopping by a roadside stand, or
belonging to a Community Supported Agriculture farm offers you the opportunity
to decide which production practices you want to support and what kind of
agricultural landscape you want to encourage.
Asking for locally produced foods when dining out or at the local
supermarket is yet another way that eaters can assume responsibility for
creating a different food system that supports viable community businesses in
growing, processing and marketing food locally.
Second, be an active citizen rather
than a passive consumer. Join with
other citizens to enact food policies at the local, regional and state level
that help increase the food choices available to all consumers and communities. Ensuring that local schools decide to buy
from local farmers and processors is a great way to start. Supporting the national Farmers’ Market
Nutrition Program increases markets for farmers and supplies wholesome food to
low-income children and seniors.
Questioning the structure of the food system may move state and national
governments to enforce anti-trust regulations that can limit the power of the
largest players in the food system.
The power to choose our food can be
ours. Acting as consumers and citizens,
we can have a food system that is healthy for us, for our farmers and for our
community.
To learn more, check out these articles:
Mary Hendrickson, William D. Heffernan, Philip H. Howard and
Judith B. Heffernan. 2001.
Consolidation in Food Retailing and Dairy: Implications for Farmers and
Consumers. Report prepared for National
Farmers Union. http://www.foodcircles.missouri.edu/consol.htm
William Heffernan, Mary Hendrickson and Robert Gronski.
1999. Consolidation in the Food and Agriculture System. Report to National Farmers Union. http://www.foodcircles.missouri.edu/consol.htm
Michael Sligh and Carolyn Christman. 2003.
Who Owns Organic? Report prepared
by Rural Advancement Fund International – USA. http://www.rafiusa.org/pubs/OrganicReport.pdf
Food Routes Network (http://www.foodroutes.org) offers a wealth of
information about where and how to buy from local farmers and retailers.