ABSTRACT
The concentration of power in businesses is evident in food systems. Ownership of the means for producing, processing, and marketing food is being steadily consolidated. In the United States, for example, where there were once more than six million farms, most of them small, there are fewer than two million farms, many of them very large. There are at least three good reasons for subsidizing foods, either for producers or consumers: to help poor people, to protect the environment, and to induce people to choose healthier foods. However, in developed countries the tendency is to subsidize high-income food producers, directly or indirectly, because they have great political influence. This results in overproduction in those sectors, with serious international consequences. Developing countries must have the right to establish food stockpiles and regulate food imports by tariffs and other means, to enable their own farmers to produce enough food for national requirements.
