Howard, Philip H. Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? London: Bloomsbury Academic (February 25, 2016).

Nearly every day brings news of another merger or acquisition involving the companies that control our food supply. Just how concentrated has this system become? At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market, a level above which these companies have the power to drive up prices for consumers and reduce their rate of innovation. Researchers have identified additional problems resulting from these trends, including negative impacts on the environment, human health, and communities.

This book reveals the dominant corporations, from the supermarket to the seed industry, and the extent of their control over markets. It also analyzes the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power, particularly in terms of their bearing upon the more vulnerable sections of society, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Yet these trends are not inevitable—opposed by numerous efforts, from microbreweries to seed saving networks, this book explores how such opposition has encouraged the most powerful firms to make small but positive changes.

Winner of the Fred Buttel Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award, Rural Sociological Society (2016).

Preview of Chapter 1

Reviews:

• Kathleen Chiappetta, The London School of Economics Review of Books
• Marion Nestle
• Leah Douglas, Washington Monthly
• Geoff Tansey
• Susan Hurst, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October 2016, 54-0701 (The Top 75 Community College Titles, September 2016, October 2016)
• Ed Steffes
• Leah Smith and Jessie Smith, Michigan Organic Connections
• Lisa F. Clark, Cuizine
• Graham Sharp, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
• Douglas H. Constance, Rural Sociology
• Michael Waterson, Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies
• Jennifer Clapp, Global Environmental Politics
• Gyorgy Scrinis, The Journal of Peasant Studies
• Phyllis, Back to Basics Kitchen
• Chloé Poiteven-DesRivières, Canadian Food Studies

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