Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance

by Jennifer Clapp, Doris Fuchs, Maarten Arentsen, Robert Falkner, Agni Kalfagianni

Overview

Experts examine the ways transnational corporations exercise power over governance of the global food system and the implications this has for sustainability

In today's globally integrated food system, events in one part of the world can have multiple and wide-ranging effects, as has been shown by the recent and rapid global rise in food prices. Transnational corporations (TNCs) have been central to the development of this global food system, dominating production, international trade, processing, distribution, and retail sectors. Moreover, these global corporations play a key role in the establishment of rules and regulations by which they themselves are governed. This book examines how TNCs exercise power over global food and agriculture governance and what the consequences are for the sustainability of the global food system. The book defines three aspects of this corporate power: instrumental power, or direct influence; structural power, or the broader influence corporations have over setting agendas and rules; and discursive, or communicative and persuasive, power. The book begins by examining the nature of corporate power in cases ranging from "green" food certification in Southeast Asia and corporate influence on U.S. food aid policy to governance in the seed industry and international food safety standards. Chapters examine such issues as promotion of corporate-defined "environmental sustainability" and "food security," biotechnology firms and intellectual property rights, and consumer resistance to GMOs and other cases of contestation in agrobiology. In a final chapter, the editors raise the crucial question of how to achieve participation, transparency, and accountability in food governance.

Contributors
Maarten Arentsen, Jennifer Clapp, Robert Falkner, Doris Fuchs, Agni Kalfagianni, Peter Newell, Steffanie Scott, Susan Sell, Elizabeth Smythe, Peter Vandergeest, Marc Williams, Mary Young

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262512374
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	05/15/2009
Series:	Food, Health, and the Environment
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Doris Fuchs is Professor of International Relations and Development at the University of Munster. She is the author of Business Power in Global Governance and other books.

What People are Saying About This

Harriet Friedmann

Given the recent shocks to the global food system, this is a timely project—one that covers a broad range of aspects in agrifood governance.

Endorsement

For the first time in the agrifood sector, this book convincingly argues how TNCs' commitment to corporate sustainable development is in fact a means to better control the governance of the global food system...thus leaving profits at the top and peoples and the environment at the bottom of the food chain!

—Matthias Finger, Dean, School of Continuing Education, Chair, Management of Network Industries, College of Management of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, Switzerland

Matthias Finger

"For the first time in the agrifood sector, this book convincingly argues how TNCs' commitment to corporate sustainable development is in fact a means to better control the governance of the global food system... thus leaving profits at the top and peoples and the environment at the bottom of the food chain!" --
Matthias Finger, Dean, School of Continuing Education, Chair,
Management of Network Industries, College of Management of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, Switzerland

From the Publisher

Given the recent shocks to the global food system, this is a timely project—one that covers a broad range of aspects in agrifood governance.

—Harriet Friedmann, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto

For the first time in the agrifood sector, this book convincingly argues how TNCs' commitment to corporate sustainable development is in fact a means to better control the governance of the global food system...thus leaving profits at the top and peoples and the environment at the bottom of the food chain!

—Matthias Finger, Dean, School of Continuing Education, Chair, Management of Network Industries, College of Management of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, Switzerland

Harriet Friedmann

"Given the recent shocks to the global food system, this is a timely project--one that covers a broad range of aspects in agrifood governance." --
Harriet Friedmann, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto

Editorial Reviews

Corporate power is an exceptionally strong volume that I recommend highly without hesitation.

--Adam Sneyd, European Journal of Risk Regulation

This is an important book for those who need to see the pieces of the global food system and the critical role of the agrifood transnational corporations (TNCs) in global food trade.

--John M. O'Sullivan, Agriculture and Human Values

From the Publisher

Corporate power is an exceptionally strong volume that I recommend highly without hesitation.

European Journal of Risk Regulation - Adam Sneyd

This is an important book for those who need to see the pieces of the global food system and the critical role of the agrifood transnational corporations (TNCs) in global food trade.

Agriculture and Human Values - John M. O'Sullivan

Corporate power is an exceptionally strong volume that I recommend highly without hesitation.

—Adam Sneyd, European Journal of Risk Regulation

Reviews