1. Starving and poisoning humanity: corporate control of global agriculture
Martin Donohoe

2. Outline Food, poverty, famine, and agriculture Industry consolidation
Factory farms/agricultural antibiotics
Pesticides
Genetically-modified foods
Bottled water
Breast milk substitutes
Failure of governmental regulation
Eliminating world hunger

3. Food, Poverty, and Famine
U.S. Poverty
15% (22% children)
Food insecurity common
Worldwide
2 billion people suffer from essential vitamin and mineral deficiencies
21,000 people starve to death daily (1 Hiroshima/7 days)

4. Agriculture Agriculture = largest industry on earth Responsible for:
70% of fresh water use
80% of world’s tropical and subtropical deforestation
33% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions

5. Corporate Consolidation in Agriculture
4 companies control 75% of the seed market
4 companies control 56% of the farm machinery market
10 companies control 55% of the fertilizer market
10 companies control 28% of the food processing market

7. Seed Market Consolidation
Mid-1970s: none of the 7,000 seed companies controlled over 0.5% of world seed market
Today 10 corporations control 75%
Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta control 53%

9. Agricultural/Biotech Companies
Most major agricultural biotech companies also pharmaceutical companies (*):
Novartis Seeds*
Aventis CropScience*
Bayer CropScience* (merger with Monsanto pending, 2016)
BASF*
Dow* (merged with Dupont, 2015)
Syngenta* (acquired by ChemChina, 2016)
Dupont/Pioneer (merged with Dow, 2015)

10. Agricultural Biotech Companies’ Other Activities
Chemical weapons:
Hoechst (mustard gas), Monsanto (Agent Orange, PCBs, dioxins), Dow (napalm)
Pesticides:
Monsanto (DDT), Dow (dioxins, PCBs, Dursban)
Ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons:
Dupont and Hoechst (merged with Rhone Poulenc to form Aventis) major producers
Other toxins:
Dupont (PFOA, major component of Teflon)

11. 10 Corporations Own Virtually Everything You Buy

12. Supermarket Consolidation
Four large chains control over half of grocery sales
Walmart, Target, Costco and Sam’s Club
One company dominates the organic grocery industry
Whole Foods

14. Factory Farms In 1950, there were 25 million U.S. farmers
Today - 2 million
163,000 factory farms produce 60% of the nation’s food
Worldwide, factory farms now account for 72 percent of poultry production, 43 percent of egg production, and 55 percent of pork production

15. U.S. and Global Farm Antibiotic Use

16. Use of Non-Therapeutic Antibiotics by Factory Farms
Agriculture accounts for 70-80% of all antibiotic use
Use by animal:
Beef cattle – 84%
Pigs – 83%
Poultry – 40-50%

17. Agricultural vs. Human Antibiotic Sales

18. Antibiotic Class – Feed Additive Antibiotics
Penicillins – Penicillin
Cephalosporins - Cephalosporins
Tetracyclines - Chlortetracycline, Oxytetracycline
Aminoglycosides - Apramycin
Macrolides - Erythromycin, Oleandomycin, Tylosin
Clindamycin (Lincosamide class) - Lincomycin
Sulfonamides - Sulfamethazine, Sulfathiazole
Vancomycin - Avoparcin

19. Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens
CDC: “Antibiotic use in food animals is the dominant source of antibiotic resistance among food-borne pathogens.”
Airborne/skin diseases also common
US Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act – awaiting vote 19

21. Pesticides
5.1 billion lbs/yr pesticides (herbicides/insecticides/fungicides) applied to crops annually worldwide
30% in US (almost 4 lbs/person/yr)
10 firms control 90% of market

23. Pesticides
EPA: U.S. farm workers suffer 300,000 pesticide- related acute illnesses and injuries/yr
25 million cases/yr worldwide
NAS: Pesticides in food could cause up to 1 million cancers in the current generation of Americans
WHO: 1 million people killed by pesticides over the last 6 years
US health and environmental costs = $11 billion/yr

24. Pesticides Have Been Linked to Many Diseases
Autism
Parkinson’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease
Diabetes
Obesity (with prenatal exposure)
Depression
ADHD

25. Pesticides Pesticides inhibit nitrogen fixation, decrease crop yields
Evidence suggests they may actually promote pests (vs. natural pesticides)
30% of medieval crop harvests were destroyed by pests vs % of current crop harvests
Suggests organic farming may be more cost-effective

26. Genetically-Modified (Genetically-Engineered) Foods
Processed foods comprise 75% of world food sales
85% of processed foods available in the U.S. today come from GM crops
Most soybeans, cotton, and corn
80% herbicide-resistant (e.g., Roundup Ready soybeans); 20% produce their own pesticide (e.g., Bt corn)
90% of GM seeds sold by Monsanto or by competitors that license Monsanto genes in their own seeds

28. Genetically-Modified Crops: Problems
Decreased agricultural biodiversity
Increased herbicide/pesticide use
Superweeds
Contamination
Financial consequences
Changes in soil, soil bacteria
Altered nutritional value
Allergies
Other potential adverse health effects

30. GE Crop Contamination
448 contamination incidents involving 63 countries from 1996-mid 2016
GM Contamination Register:
Failure of regulatory oversight per Office of Inspector General, Department of Agriculture

31. Corporate Agriculture’s PR tactics
Characterize opposition as “technophobic,” anti- science,” and “against progress”
Portray their products as environmentally beneficial despite evidence to the contrary (Greenwashing)
Sponsor educational materials
Co-opt academics, attack scientists
Lobby, political donations

32. Corporate Agribusiness
Successful campaigns against statewide GM labeling initiatives
Keeps GM seeds from non-corporate academic researchers
Promotes agriculture bills which provide big subsidies to large industrial farms
Supports state “Ag-Gag” laws - aimed at preventing employees, journalists, and activists from exposing illegal or unethical practices

33. GM Food Labeling Today
2016: Federal Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (aka Dark Act – Denying Americans Right to Know Act) signed by Obama, requires limited/confusing labeling, overrides all local labeling laws, supported by industry
2016: Center for Food Safety, others file lawsuit opposing

35. Famine and GE Foods
Countries/corporations who control GE seeds and crops attempted, through the UNFAO and the WHO, to use the famine in Zambia (early 2000s) to market GE foods through aid programs, even though…
More than 45 African and other countries expressed a willingness to supply local, non-GE relief

36. Famine and GE Foods
Zambia did not wish to pollute its crops with GE foods, which would have prevented it from exporting home- grown crops to many other countries which do not accept GE imports (further weakening its already fragile economy)
Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Angola have also refused GM food aid

37. GE Foods and World Hunger
GE foods promoted as the solution to world hunger
No commercially available GE crop that is drought-resistant, salt- or flood-tolerant, or which increases yields (USDA)

38. GE Foods and World Hunger
Undermine food and nutritional security, food sovereignty, and food democracy
Increasing reliance on GE food
Consolidates corporate control of agriculture
Transmogrifies farmers into bioserfs

39. Bottled Water $400 billion/yr industry
Costs 1,400-3,000X more than tap water
Takes up to 2,000X more energy to produce than tap water
Often lacks essential minerals, fluoride
Creates more waste - recycling rate of plastic bottles only 23%
45% is tap water!

40. Bottled Water
“Water is an efficient product…which normally would be free, and it is our job to sell it.”
Suez CEO Gerard Mestrallet

41. Breast Milk Substitutes
Marketed to women in developing world
Nestlé, others
Discourage (and make more difficult) breast feeding
WHO International Code of Conduct
U.S. has not signed
32% of U.S. hospitals still distribute formula packs at discharge (which would violate WHO code)

42. Problems with the Integrity of the Food System in the United States
Inadequate funding for food inspection
FDA has 1,000 food inspectors responsible for 421,000 production facilities
FDA inspects fewer than 8,000 facilities per year (down from 35,000/yr in 1970s)
FDA conflicts of interest, revolving door with industry

43. Problems with the Integrity of the Food System
33% of food (including 20% of seafood) is mislabeled
19% of U.S. food supply imported (including 52% of fresh fruits, 22% of fresh vegetables, and 85% of seafood)
Only 1.5% of imported food is inspected
COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) overturned by Congress (2015)
2016: OIG (DHHS) finds FDA’s procedures to recall contaminated or misbranded food inadequate

44. Feeding the World
There is already enough food to feed the planet (UNFAO)
Solving world hunger requires social and political will
One week of developed world farm subsidies = Annual cost of food aid to eliminate world hunger
Eliminate IMF, World Bank, and WTO structural adjustment programs which exacerbate hunger in the developing world by forcing debtor nations to restructure their agricultural base toward export crops and away from nutritional foodstuffs for local consumption

45. Feeding the World - Foreign Aid
0.19% of the total federal budget (vs. UN target of 0.7%)
1.6% of the U.S. discretionary budget
On average, Americans think that 24% of the federal budget goes toward foreign aid 45

46. Feeding the World - Foreign Aid
In total dollars: U.S. #1
As a % of GDP, U.S. ranks 21st
U.S. Aid: Over 1/3 military, 1/4 economic, 1/3 for food and development
Most U.S. aid benefits U.S. corporations 46

47. Feeding the World Support Local Agriculture Organic Farming:
Helps local economies
Minimizes environmental footprint
Organic Farming:
Produces higher yields than non-organic farming
Uses 45% less energy, less water, and no pesticides
Increases soil carbon (converting carbon from a greenhouse gas into a food-producing asset)

48. Feeding the World Organic foods contain
Up to 20% higher mineral and vitamin content and 30% more antioxidants
Lower levels of toxic metals
Organic meats and milk have 50% higher amounts of healthful omega-3 fatty acids

49. Public Health and Social Justice Website and Book
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