Analyzing trends in corporate concentration in agrifood systems - Dialogue with Jennifer Clapp, drawing on Titans of Industrial Agriculture

 

Patterns of concentration across agricultural input sectors have become increasingly visible in recent decades. Understanding these trends is important for assessing their implications for governance, sustainability, and the realization of the right to adequate food.

FAO’s Right to Food Team invites you to a dialogue with Jennifer Clapp, a leading scholar on global food systems governance. Drawing on her recent book Titans of Industrial Agriculture, the session will provide a space for evidence-based discussion and analysis of corporate concentration trends and their implications.

The event will focus on:

• Current trends in corporate concentration.
• Their potential implications for the right to food.
• Evidence-based approaches to strengthen resilience, equity, and sustainability.

This exchange will provide an opportunity for participants to analyze and reflect on how to advance agrifood systems that are sustainable, inclusive, and capable of delivering on the right to food for present and future generations.

 

About the author

Dr. Jennifer Clapp is a distinguished political economist specializing in the global governance of food systems. She is Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.

She has contributed actively to international food policy as a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and as Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on World Food Security’s High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) from 2021 to 2023. Her research explores global trade, corporate concentration, and environmental sustainability in agrifood systems.

Agenda

Moderator  Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director, Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division (ESP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Session and presenter

Opening remarks  Adriana Herrero, Secretary, Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Benjamin Davis, ESP Director, FAO.

Setting the scene - Human right to adequate food  Juan Echanove, Right to Food Team Lead, ESP, FAO.

Book presentation - Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters Dr. Jennifer Clapp, Author.

A conversation with the author Jennifer Clapp  Moderated by Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director, ESP, FAO.

Interactive dialogue with the audience

 

The views expressed in this presentation and book are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).