Baines, ‘Accumulating through Food Crisis? Farmers, Commodity Traders and the Distributional Politics of Food Crisis’

Abstract This paper considers the domestic and international ramifications of financialization and grain price instability in the US agri-food sector. It finds that during the recent period of high and volatile prices, the average income of large-scale farms reached the earnings threshold of the top percentile of US households, and agricultural commodity traders markedly outperformed […]

Continue Reading

Howard, ‘Concentration and Power in the Food System’

Abstract This book seeks to illuminate which firms have become the most dominant, and more importantly, how they shape and reshape society in their efforts to increase their control. These dynamics have received insufficient attention from academics and even critics of the current food system. The power of dominant firms extends far beyond narrow economic […]

Continue Reading

Baines, ‘Fuel, Feed and the Corporate Restructuring of the Food Regime’

Abstract The agrofuel boom has brought about some of the most significant transformations in the world food system in recent decades. A rich and diverse body of agrarian political economy research has emerged that elucidates the conflicts and redistributional shifts engendered by these transformations. However, less attention has been given to differences within agri-food capital. […]

Continue Reading

No. 2014/03: Baines, ‘The Ethanol Boom and the Restructuring of the Food Regime’

Abstract The agrofuel boom has brought about some of the most significant transformations in the world food system in recent decades. A rich and diverse body of agrarian political economy research has emerged that elucidates the conflicts and redistributional shifts engendered by these transformations. However, hitherto this point, less attention has been given to differences […]

Continue Reading