ABSTRACT
During the 1980s and 1990s, there was rapid industrialization of agriculture in the developed economies (Boehlje 1995, 1996). The trend toward greater concentration in agricultural input and food distribution, the increasing role of information and logistic technologies and the growing importance of food safety, quality and other technical requirements resulted in dramatic changes in food systems. Food systems became highly organized and linked from producer through consumer with an increasingly dominant role played by highly concentrated agro-industrial firms and retailers. With rapid economic growth, increasing urbanization and accelerated integration into the world market, many developing countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia have also seen a surge in the number of supermarkets and large agro-food firms operating within their borders, and trends similar to those that reshaped food systems in developed economies have been reported in developing countries (see for example Cook et al, 2001).
