When British farmers protested outside the Houses of Parliament earlier this year, they sent 49 scarecrows, after a survey had found that 49% of UK fruit and vegetable farmers said they expected to go bust within a year. The scarecrows stood in for real farmers, who are mostly too afraid to speak out. One farmer told campaigners they had grown 60 tonnes of salad potatoes for a large UK supermarket, only for the supermarket to suddenly cancel the order, leaving the farmer “financially screwed”. The arbitrary power that supermarkets wield instils fear, which the supermarkets leverage to impose take-it-or-leave-it fees and other unfair conditions on farmers.
The problem is our monopolised food system. Think of it as a vast profit machine shaped like an hourglass, with many food producers at the top, millions of consumers at the bottom, and a few dominant firms – such as giant supermarkets or global food traders – clustered at its narrowing neck, siphoning a cut from the passing traffic. This power ripples through global supply chains. Between 70% and 90% of commercial grain trading, for example, is now controlled by five giants, known as ABCCD: ADM, Bunge, Cofco, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Company. Together, they handle the bread, cereals, meat and other food that lands on our plates.
Bunge now wants to merge with a rival firm, Viterra, to create a single company, giving farmers even less choice as to who they can sell their produce to, and giving the combined firm more power to pay farmers less. Research from the University of Saskatchewan estimates this merger would cut $770m from annual farm........