ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that there have been deep and structural changes in the context within which the peasantries of the twenty-first century operate. It focuses on food empires: the global and oligopolistic networks that control increasingly large parts of the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food. The chapter also argues that the peasantry's resistance and struggles are no longer solely reactive, but increasingly active. It discusses that food empires tend to dismantle existing constellations by eliminating, taking over and/or redefining strategically important connections. Historically, the peasant principle has been articulated and operated as a line of defence against the many threats, dangers and temptations that surrounded the peasantry. Food empires operate in oligopolistic ways because they tend to control all the major points of entry, exit and conversion. In the case of Parmalat it also triggered new forms of food engineering that would have allowed the company to squeeze far more profit from milk than conventional processing methods.