Governance, policy, and power | TableDebates

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Journal articles

Increasing inequality in agri-food value chains: global trends from 1995-2020

This analysis finds that global agricultural production for food and industrial inputs has increasingly shifted to the global South, global food-system income is increasingly captured by post-farm activities in the global North, and a substantial share of food-system income is captured in low-tax jurisdictions with low agricultural production.

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¿Desigualdad en disputa? Reflexiones sobre las expresiones de la desigualdad en el sistema alimentario de Colombia

En Colombia, como en muchos países de América Latina, la desigualdad es una característica intrínseca del desarrollo, que se manifiesta en todos los aspectos de la vida de las personas. Sin embargo, no ha sido un aspecto ampliamente explorado en las discusiones sobre el sistema alimentario. Desde MESA Colombia venimos trabajando en 2025 sobre algunas preguntas alrededor de dimensiones y expresiones de la desigualdad en los sistemas alimentarios de Colombia. Este ensayo busca generar reflexiones sobre estas preguntas y sobre la necesidad de profundizar el diálogo alrededor de los acuerdos o desacuerdos que estas generen.

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Top 10 agribusiness giants in 2025

This report by Grain examines the state of corporate concentration in six sectors critical to agriculture: commercial seeds, pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, farm machinery, animal pharmaceuticals and livestock genetics.

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UK government food strategy

This strategy by the UK government sets out the problems facing the UK's food system, and how it will create a healthier, more affordable, sustainable, resilient system.

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Whole-of-food system governance for transformative change

This research provides insights into whole-of-food system governance to resolve competing interests, policy incoherence and power asymmetries with systems thinking and considering who should govern food systems.

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Journal articles

Corporate concentration and power matter for agency in food systems

This paper argues that increased corporate concentration and power in food systems has the capacity to undermine people’s agency in three core ways. Companies with high market concentration charge higher prices, suppress wages and weaken livelihood opportunities, they shape consumers’ choices, and their corporate lobbying weakens democratic participation.

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Food Policy in the United States

This book is an update to the book about all aspects of food policy in the U.S. It covers policy changes since the 2018 Farm Bill, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and President Trump’s approach to food and agricultural trade.

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European Agricultural Policy

This book traces the European Common Agricultural Policy from its conception to the present day. It aims to understand how many of today’s problems have roots whose branches extend back in time, and to draw useful insights to help the European Union develop an ambitious agricultural and rural development policy.

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Titans of Industrial Agriculture

Professor Jennifer Clapp investigates how a small handful of giant corporations have come to dominate the farm input sector, why it matters and what can be done about it. She explains how we got here, outlining the forces that enable this extreme concentration of power.