The world’s human population and food consumption are growing – does this mean the number of companies involved in the food sector is growing as well? The opposite is true: big corporations buy smaller companies and thus increase their market share and power.
Hence, companies can dictate prices, terms and conditions and, increasingly, the political framework. Much of what we consume in the North is being produced more cheaply in the Global South. The profits are made by only a few, predominantly Northern, companies. The big losers are the plantation workers and small farmers in the South, as they are the weakest links in the “value chain”. In no other section of the population is hunger so widespread. More and more ecosystems are being degraded and destroyed.
