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Ownership concentration in the food industry
Ownership concentration and globalisation of the food industry are interrelated. While considering this issue you should also keep in mind what you have learnt about globalisation as many points relate to both issues.
This issue is studied in the option strand, Contemporary food issues: Marketplace and you are asked to examine how it affects the food supply in both developed and developing nations.
Outcomes
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcome:
H3.2 A student independently investigates contemporary food issues.
Extract from Stage 6 Food Technology Syllabus © Board of Studies NSW 1999.
The food industry forms a major sector of the Australian economy and this is true in many other countries of the world. It has become big business. With advances in technology, food can be produced in enormous quantities, stored, packed and shipped anywhere in the world. This means that food markets are not restricted by national borders but by consumer tastes and preferences. Food companies potentially have the world as their market and this in turn has led to an increasing trend towards multinational food companies.
In 2002, the Australian government released
the National
Food Industry Strategy 
to help food companies in Australia
address issues arising from globalisation. It provides a good
snapshot of ownership in the food industry and also discusses
some key issues related to this topic. Although much of this
document is relevant to this and other parts of the Food Technology
syllabus, pages 814 specifically discuss ownership in the
food industry.
Activity 1
Concentration in the food industry raises many issues. Click on the links below to view examples of each issue. Read the information presented and write three dot points for each to explain the impact of these issues for the consumer.
- The influence of large multinational corporations
on governments and policy makers compared to that of individual
consumers and non-profit consumer organisations.
Read page 2 of the information sheet Trade, a way out of poverty?, published by World Vision. Click here to download the pdf file.
- The influence on nutrition and health of a highly
industrialised food supply.
- Food
safety issues associated with large-scale food production and transportation.
- Influence of
a globalised food supply controlled by multinational corporations
on cultural
and social food identity .
- Environmental
issues, for example, most people need to travel to food retailers
and the average chicken travels 2000 km before being consumed;
agricultural
biodiversity is under threat from "high-yielding"
crops.
- Viability of small businesses when multinationals rely on large quantities of consistent products and raw materials.
Read the dot points: Decline in commodity prices and Dominance of TNCs on page 3 of the information sheet Trade, a way out of poverty?. Click here to download the pdf file.
- Employment and social justice issues, including
workers rights such as sick pay and holiday pay, as multinationals
source ingredients for the cheapest price often in developing
nations that have low rates of pay and fewer worker entitlements.
Read the boxed information: Cheap from China on page 2 of the information sheet Trade, a way out of poverty?, published by World Vision. Click here to download the pdf file.
Activity 2
The following article "Paying
the price for healthy tucker" , Choice , October
1999, looks at food availability in remote regions of Australia
and how people can be disadvantaged by centralised food systems.
Examine the link between Aboriginal health issues and the cost and availability of healthy food.
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