The Big Business Food Industry

1
The Big Business Food Industry
2
Whos in Charge of our diets?

• Six or fewer companies control around 70 of the
  world agricultural commodity trade
• They are making huge profits at the expense of
  the small farmers who produce the food and people
  who pay more money each year to eat a less
  diverse and more processed diet
• Small farmers are losing their farms, and more
  and more people are turning to food banks (9 in
  Canada)

3
Why you ask?

• Few government restrictions or regulations to
  hold multinational corporations accountable for
  their actions
• WTO World Trade Organization
• NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
• Both of these allow these corporations to own
  and control larger portions of the global market

4
Concerns

• Land Distribution in most countries
  agribusinesses own most of the fertile land,
  local people do not have land to farm. Instead
  they are forced to work for the large businesses
  making low wages and in poor working conditions
• Few of the profits go back into these countries

5
Genetic Engineering

• Agribusinesses genetically engineer seed, which
  they then patent.
• Farmers must buy seeds every year rather than
  gathering the ones from previous crops
• 2001 Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, was
  sued by agribusiness Monsanto because some of
  Monsantos crops were found growing on his land.
  He claimed that the wind blew the seeds onto his
  land and that he hadnt harvested them illegally.
  Monsanto won.

6
Pesticides

• Larger amounts of pesticides are used by the
  agribusinesses than by small farmers
• Cause damage to farmers, soil, water, and
  consumers
• The World Health Organization estimates that 3
  million people a year are poisoned by pesticides,
  and 200,000 die. (Oxfam)

7
Cash Crops

• Most agribusinesses grow food to export rather
  than food to be eaten in the country in which it
  is grown
• This means that people in those countries rely on
  imported foods, making them more expensive
• Cash crops tobacco, cocoa, coffee, wheat, rice,
  peanuts, etc.

8
Whos in Control? Here are 3

• Philip Morris produces
• Kraft Products - Maxwell House
• Crystal Light - Kool-Aid
• Tang - Alpha-bits
• Grape nuts - Honeycomb
• Pebbles - Raisin Bran
• Shredded Wheat - Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce
• Terrys Chocolates - Toblerone
• Jell-O - Dream Whip
• Taco Bell dinner kits and salsa
• Velveeta - Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• Oscar Meyer hot dogs - Tombstone Digiorno Pizza
• Miller Brewing Co. - Philip Morris Cigarettes

9
Nestle

• Nescafe - Tasters Choice
• Nesquik - Carnation
• Golden Grahams - Cocoa Puffs
• Cheerios - Lucky Charms
• Cinnamon Toast - Magi
• Libbys - Stouffers
• Lean Cuisine - Haagen Dazs
• Montego Sherbet - Chips Ahoy
• Crunch - KitKat
• Quality Street - Smarties
• Baci - After Eight
• Baby Ruth - Butterfinger
• Aero -Fancy Feast
• Friskies - LOreal
• Pharmaceutical products Alcon and Galderma

10
Cargill

• Barge Operations - Beef
• Broilers - Cattle feeding
• Cocoa Trading - Coffee
• Financial brokerages - Cotton
• Corn Milling - Egg Products
• Fats and Oils - Feed
• Ferrous Metals - Flour Milling
• Fertilizers - Fruit juices
• Fruits and vegetables - Grain
• Leasing - Malt
• Molasses - Oil seeds
• Peanuts/nuts - Petroleum
• Nongrain feed - Pork
• Poultry - Rice Milling
• Rubber - Salt
• Steel - Structured Finance
• Sugar - Swine production
• Turkeys - Wire
• Wool

11
What Can We Do?

• Buy products that are locally grown
• Buy organic foods to reduce the amount of
  pesticides and chemicals entering our bodies
• Buy fairly traded items such as coffee
• Support local business instead of big box
  companies