Corporate power and the challenge of food systems transformation

This chapter explores how commercial actors have interacted with efforts to address the health, climate, and environmental externalities of our food system. A growing body of research across disciplines and issue areas indicates that increasing corporate concentration in the food sector has major implications for the extent to which transnational corporations can shape policies nationally and internationally. In this chapter we introduce the concepts of corporate power, obstruction, and corporate political activity, and illustrate how they have manifested in food systems governance. We provide an overview of research to date, using as entry points two sectors that illustrate the political dynamics we describe: meat and sugar-sweetened beverages. Finally, we set out an interdisciplinary research agenda with the aim to further our collective understanding of the barriers to effective policy action, and discuss approaches to improve safeguarding of decision-making processes.