The story of the broken food system

Why the global food system is broken

The industrialized food production has brought us to a point of no return – or at least it can seem that way. The food sector is a major contributor to climate change, responsible for up to 40% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Exploitative labour practices and the exponential creation of farmland are displacing entire communities and destroy natural habitats. The most harrowing part: Even though we are producing more food than ever before, an estimated 768 million people in the world are suffering from hunger. Despite the goal of ending world hunger by 2030, the numbers have now been rising dramatically for three years in a row! How is this possible?

Map of hunger: Where do most people suffer from hunger?

Food availability: Living in an abundance of food

The products we see on the shelves of our supermarkets have been purposely disconnected from their origins. Exported goods account for a big portion of the product volume in European supermarkets and yet we don’t see the distances they have travelled or the working conditions in which they were produced. Would we still buy them, if we did? Every food item has a story. And since the advent of industrialised mass production, that story has become far more complex and troubling.

Banana production: This is how a global food supply chain can look like

Industrialisation and the over-reliance on carbon

Industrialisation profoundly changed the way we produce food. Circular economies of the past, centred around producing and recycling locally, have been replaced by a one-way system of continuous flow that services the entire globe. As a result, we create vast amounts of carbon emissions in the processing, packaging, storaging and transportation of our food – only to throw away more of it than we ever have. A total of 30% of global energy consumption happens in the food sector. The industrial meat industry is an especially large contributor.

Comparison of the different foods’ ecological footprints. Aspects such as growing conditions, packaging and import routes were taken into account.

The market dominance of global big players

We have created an agricultural sector dominated by the market imperatives profit maximisation and growth. This has led to huge amounts of power at the top of the supply chain and a growing inequality between farmers who export their products and those dependent on local markets. Small farmers are systematically disenfranchised by tactics like price gouging, displacement from land and the control of seeds and patents. Most troubling of all, this sort of market power enables giant companies to influence laws that benefit them. Anyone who is unable to compete is pushed out of the game.

Large food corporations profit from the agro-industrial food system, which is mainly based on an unequal distribution of profit.

Supermarkets as Gatekeepers

Supermarkets have a huge influence on how our food is produced and distributed, as well. The higher the market share of the supermarket chain, the greater their power to dictate prices and conditions to suppliers. Competition between supermarket chains for even more market power has the effect of squeezing out local retailers and producers, and concentrating market power in a few large chains. These chains ultimately determine the offer on the shelves from which the shopper can choose.

Europes biggest supermarkets by turnover

Labor exploitation: A cornerstone of the food industry

Providing more food at cheaper prices does not work without exploitative labour. Human and labour rights violations are widespread in agriculture. Due to the lack of legal protection, many are regularly exposed to dangerous working conditions and have no way to fight back. Employment of vulnerable groups such as migrants and women is particularly widespread, as their legal status and position in society makes them easier to exploit, as they have e.g. fewer and often weakly secured rights, insecure residence status, and are more often affected by racial discrimination. Find out more on our “Foodtest” action page. We have taken a look at the invisible ingredients in food that come to us through global supply chains.

The fight for arable land

The global race for arable land has just begun. Large corporations in particular, but also governments, are acquiring large areas of land, especially in the countries of the Global South, for the profitable cultivation of food or other agricultural goods. In this way, the Global North secures its food supply, but also its imperial power structure. Arable land has become a valuable investment and speculative commodity. Land grabbing is often carried out illegally and violently, sometimes even with the use of police or military, and in the long term destroys the livelihoods of indigenous communities and local small holders, which are increasingly displaced. This form of land appropriation is also known as land grabbing. Once again, industrial meat production is proving to be a major culprit, as the clearing of forests for the cultivation of soya primarily serves the meat industry. To meet the demand for meat, more and more land is needed for the cultivation of animal feed. But in Europe, too, the distributional inequality is obvious: about 3 % of the companies own about 59 % of the land.

LAND GRABBING: Illegal appropriation of cultivable land on foreign territories by powerful actors.