Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance

329 Pages·2009·0.89 MB·English

by  Jennifer Clapp

CORPORATE POWER IN GLOBAL
AGRIFOOD GOVERNANCE
edited by Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs
Corporate Power in Global Agrifood
Governance
Food, Health, and the Environment
Series Editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and
Environmental Policy, Occidental College
Keith Douglass Warner, Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative
Agriculture through Social Networks
Christopher M. Bacon, V. Ernesto Méndez, Stephen R. Gliessman, David
Goodman, and Jonathan A. Fox, eds., Confronting the Coffee Crisis:
Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods, and Ecosystems in Mexico and
Central America
Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh, eds., Food and the
Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle
Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs, eds., Corporate Power in Global
Agrifood Governance
Corporate Power in Global Agrifood
Governance
edited by Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed
and bound in the United States of America on recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Corporate power in global agrifood governance / edited by Jennifer Clapp and
Doris Fuchs.
p. cm.—(Food, health, and the environment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-01275-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-51237-4
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Farm produce—marketing. 2. Agricultural industries. 3. International
business enterprises. 4. Globalization. I. Clapp, Jennifer, 1963– II. Fuchs,
Doris A.
HD9000.5.c67 2009
382'.41—dc22
2008042146
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Acknowledgments ix
Contributors xi
List of Acronyms xv
1 Agrifood Corporations, Global Governance, and Sustainability: A
Framework for Analysis 1
Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs
I Corporate Power in International Retail and Trade
Governance 27
2 Retail Power, Private Standards, and Sustainability in the Global
Food System 29
Doris Fuchs, Agni Kalfagianni, and Maarten Arentsen
3 Certifi cation Standards and the Governance of Green Foods in
Southeast Asia 61
Steffanie Scott, Peter Vandergeest, and Mary Young
4 In Whose Interests? Transparency and Accountability in the Global
Governance of Food: Agribusiness, the Codex Alimentarius, and
the World Trade Organization 93
Elizabeth Smythe
5 Corporate Interests in US Food Aid Policy: Global Implications of
Resistance to Reform 125
Jennifer Clapp
vi Contents
II Corporations and Governance of Genetically Modifi ed
Organisms 153
6 Feeding the World? Transnational Corporations and the
Promotion of Genetically Modifi ed Food 155
Marc Williams
7 Corporations, Seeds, and Intellectual Property Rights
Governance 187
Susan K. Sell
8 The Troubled Birth of the “Biotech Century”: Global Corporate
Power and Its Limits 225
Robert Falkner
9 Technology, Food, Power: Governing GMOs in Argentina 253
Peter Newell
10 Corporate Power and Global Agrifood Governance: Lessons
Learned 285
Doris Fuchs and Jennifer Clapp
Index 297
Series Foreword
I am pleased to present the fourth book in the Food, Health, and the
Environment series. This series explores the global and local dimensions
of food systems and examines issues of access, justice, and environmental
and community well-being. It includes books that focus on the way food
is grown, processed, manufactured, distributed, sold, and consumed.
Among the matters addressed are what foods are available to communi-
ties and individuals, how those foods are obtained, and what health and
environmental factors are embedded in food-system choices and out-
comes. The series focuses not only on food security and well-being but
also on regional, state, national, and international policy decisions and
economic and cultural forces. Food, Health, and the Environment books
provide a window into the public debates, theoretical considerations,
and multidisciplinary perspectives that have made food systems and their
connections to health and the environment important subjects of
study.
Robert Gottlieb, Occidental College
Series editor

Acknowledgments
This book originated with a workshop held in Waterloo, Ontario, in
December 2006 on the theme of corporate power in global food gover-
nance. We would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, the Centre for International Governance
Innovation, and the Faculty of Environmental Studies at the University
of Waterloo for fi nancial support for that workshop. We are grateful to
Clay Morgan and Sandra Minkkinen at the MIT Press for shepherding
the project through the publication process, and to Robert Gottlieb and
three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments. We would
also like to thank Alex Bota, Matthew Bunch, Kim Burnett, Linda
Swanston, and Candace Wormsbecker for research and editorial assis-
tance. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the contributors
to this book, as well as to our families and friends, for their patience
and support throughout the publication process.