Who controls the food system?

In a world of globalised industry, where many States’ policy has increasingly been dictated by private sector interests and transnational corporations, it is worth examining how the Right to Food and the emergence of social movements that represent peoples’ local food systems and food sovereignty are swaying the balance in their favour.

Food is a fundamental right. We all need to eat. So obviously controlling the food system has, in the last 50 years become one of the key areas where TNCs are attempting to control the system.

But before examining the various aspects of the power and interplay between corporate interests and those of our world’s current 7 billion inhabitants, we need to ask a few key questions.

What is the history of our food systems? How are the corporations trying to control them? What strategies are they using? How is this affecting our social systems and food security? How are social movements responding? What impacts have they had so far? What are the next key stages in this struggle?