Bonus. From horses to AI: Jennifer Clapp on how fossil fuels shaped agriculture
Episode Summary
Is the battle over who controls and owns agricultural data one of the most important—and least discussed—fights in 21st-century farming? In this conversation, Jennifer Clapp (prof at the University of Waterloo and member of IPES-Food) explores the deep ties between fossil fuels and our food system, tracing their influence from fertilizers and pesticides to farm mechanization and digital agriculture. She unpacks how fossil-fueled inputs have shaped—and continue to shape—modern farming.
About the Expert
Jennifer Clapp is a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Clapp is currently a member of IPES-Food and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub.
Her most recent books include Food, 3rd Edition (Polity, 2020), Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (with S. Ryan Isakson, Fernwood Press, 2018), Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (Cornell University Press, 2012), Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment, 2nd Edition (with Peter Dauvergne, MIT Press, 2011), and Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (co-edited with Doris Fuchs, MIT Press, 2009). Her newest book, published with MIT Press (2025), is titled Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters.
Diagrams from Jennifer Clapp's book: Titans of Industrial Agriculture
Some Recent Digital and Biological Acquisitions of the Major Agricultural Input Firms
Major Mergers and Acquisitions in the Chemical Pesticide Industry late 1800s to Today
Fate of the Four Dominant Hybrid Seed Companies after the 1970s
Major Mergers and Acquisitions in the Farm Machinery Sector 1830s-Today
Major Mergers and Acquisitions in the Fertilizer Sector 1880s-Today
The images above are shared with permission of the author and publisher.
Fuel to Fork is a collaboration between TABLE, IPES-Food, and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. Logo and branding by The Ethical Agency.
