The Unaddressed Impact of Food Manufacturing Firms on Global Wellness

Food processing contributes significantly to food security and nutrition security by extending the shelf life of staple foods and fortifying them with vitamins and minerals.

FREMONT, CA: In research, the food system concept typically follows a linear progression from farms to plates.

Frequently, stops along the journey, including food preparation, transportation, and retail, are accorded equal space and weight. Typically, the diagrams float independently in space, unconnected to any legal system, economy, or private business. Despite their appealing simplicity, these descriptions fail to represent the fundamental asymmetries of power and responsibility in food production and starkly contrast the realities of the current food system.

Large-scale food and beverage corporations engaged in the processing and producing raw agricultural commodities for profit on global markets are not only a different stage in the food system's progression. They significantly contribute to inequities in human health and environmental sustainability.

Far from determining the ultimate use of the whole seeds, grains, vegetables, and legumes they produce, farmers are increasingly trapped in cycles of dependence, relying on the costly and contractually obligated use of pesticides and fertilizers to increase yields and compete on the international market. To meet the ever-increasing needs of food processing firms, their lands and production capacities are deteriorating, resulting in new economic stresses and increased suicide rates.

Accountability of food processing businesses

Food processing corporations must lower the health, and public health researchers must acknowledge the environmental costs of their products. As the center of immense economic and political power, the food processing industry should be the focus of reform efforts rather than the very different populations of consumers and farmers at either end of the food system.

How food processing firms can limit damage to human health and natural habitats must be determined by research and policy. Instead of burdening consumers (who already bear the hidden costs of food through health care, pollution cleanups, and other public services) with higher prices or taxes on unhealthy foods, solutions should prioritize consumer protection by taking into account the inherent disparities of the consumer-supplier relationship, such as disparities in bargaining power, knowledge, and resources.

Increased openness of the environmental and social risks faced by all participants in the food supply chain, not only agricultural producers, is necessary so that consumers, governments, and investors can discourage dangerous and unsustainable business practices. Government regulation must also go beyond current marketing and labeling rules (which essentially place the burden of informed decision-making back on the consumer) to establish and enforce stringent criteria for what food and beverage items may be produced and sold legally.

Food processing firms earn one-fourth of every dollar spent on groceries in the United States. A handful of companies dominate up to 98.4 percent of the market share in specific categories of prepared foods. In contrast, the nation's over 2.5 million farmworkers, undocumented and shielded by fair pay laws, earn only eight cents for every dollar spent on groceries.

Food processing businesses are bottlenecks in the global food system, exerting disproportionate influence over what and how much farmers produce and what consumers consume.

Pressure on farming

Even with this concentration of power and wealth, international agendas for public health and sustainable food production frequently call for reform by farmers and consumers, not the most potent food corporations.

The agricultural industry, a diversified collection of small, medium, and large-scale producers worldwide, is criticized for its greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and water consumption. Yet, the artificial demand produced by food processing businesses for derivatives of farmers' crops and livestock, such as refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and animal-derived meats and fats, is rarely discussed. By encouraging overeating in their meals and product formulations, fast food firms and processors create excess customer demand, putting farms under unfair pressure to deliver vast amounts of inexpensive, unsustainable goods.