Today's food systems are an outgrowth of a long and on-going process of economic concentration that has enabled the biggest agribusinesses by and large to define and control food and farming. For example, worldwide, the top ten seed firms control 30% of the US$24.4 billion seed market[1] and the top ten agrochemical corporations control 84% of the US$30 billion agrochemical market.[2] Pesticide Action Network North America's corporate profiles of the six largest pesticide manufacturers provide brief, well-documented overviews of the structure, social and environmental impacts, and influence of these powerful actors at the top of global agribusiness.
Special thanks to Ben Schachter and Tara Failey for research and writing for this series of profiles.
[1] Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, "Globalization Inc.--Concentration in Corporate Power: The Unmentioned Agenda," July 2001, available at <http://www.rafi.org>. [2] Skip Spitzer, "Industrial Agriculture and Corporate Power," Global Pesticide Campaigner (Volume 13, Number 2), August 2003.