The industrial food chain is complex - and highly profitable for those who control it. In India, ancient traditional grains have been patented by multinationals, while drought- and pest-resistant strains of food crops are engineered in laboratories and planted in massive monocultures worldwide. Harsh pesticides and herbicides have become the rule instead of the exception. GMO soybeans are crowding out the Amazon rainforests; meanwhile, massively subsidized, nutritionally-challenged corn finds its way into almost every aspect of the American diet, especially fast food. The corporations (Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, McDonald's, etc) behind what we eat exert power in their best interest, rather than in ours.
Dole Food Company, Inc. is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables such as bananas and pineapples, and also produces cut flowers and nuts. Dole has a history of operating plantations in the US across the globe, often creating poor working conditions and unsafe environmental conditions such as pesticide use, soil erosion and deforestation.
'''Sodexo''' (Sodexho Alliance prior to 23 January 2008, Euronext: SW) is a French multinational corporation and one of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world. It is present in 29,000 sites within eighty countries, earning revenue in 2007 of €13.385 million. Sodexo has two major lines of business: food and facility management services, and service vouchers and cards.
Monsanto has a vision of a future with ‘Abundant Food and a Healthy Environment’, however, their vision of how to achieve this may differ from yours. Monsanto is one of the most powerful companies attempting to shape the future of agriculture and take control of the global food chain. They are by far the biggest seller of GM crops in the world. Their products account for 80% of the total area of global farmland planted with GM crops in 1999. Monsanto are also the second largest seed company in the world with global sales of $1,700 million.
The Scotts Company is the world's leading supplier and marketer of consumer products for do-it-yourself lawn and garden care. It also supplies a range of products for professional horticulture. Scotts owns the leading brands in every major category in virtually all of the countries where it has a significant presence.
Headquartered in Atlanta Georgia, AFC Enterprises operates the #2 fast food chain specializing in chicken, the infamous "Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits". Currently, there are over 1,900 Popeye's locations in the United States and and over 2 dozen locations in other countries. AFCE owns 55 locations themselves and franchises the rest.
CSAV, Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest in Latin America. CSAV, one of the oldest shipping companies in the world, was founded in 1872. The company’s business initially consisted exclusively of coastal shipping services but these were rapidly extended along the whole west coast of South America to the Panama Canal before this was opened to regular traffic.
Sadia S.A. is a major Brazilian food producer. It is among the world’s leading producers of frozen foods, and is Brazil’s main exporter of meat-based products. As of 2006, Sadia has about 12 industrial plants in Brazil that together produce over 1.3 million tons of meat-based products raning from chicken, turkey, pork and beef, as well as pasta, margerines, desserts, and other products. The company manages to provide to over 70 thousand direct points of sale in Brazil and around 200 foreign clients in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadia
JBS-Friboi operates in the Food segment (fresh meat, processed and canned products), Cattle Raising (cattle raising ranches), Transportation and the Hygiene and Cleaning industry. The brands Friboi, Maturatta, Swift and Anglo are available in supermarkets all over Brazil. There are more than 70 types of meat cuts and different types of canned and processed food, from the very Brazilian "feijoada" (black bean stew with different kinds of meat), corn, peas, canned vegetables, to ready-prepared beef cuts and industrialized products.
The Gerdau Group is the world´s 14th largest steelmaker and the largest producer of long steel in the Americas. It has 272 industrial and commercial facilities, five joint ventures and two associated companies. Gerdau operates in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the United States, Canada, Spain and India. Currently, Gerdau has an installed capacity of 23.2 million metric tons of steel per year and supply steel for civil construction, industry and agriculture.
The Unilever Group consists primarily of Unilever NV and Unilever PLC and is one of the world’s top makers of packaged consumer goods and sells products like deodorants, fragrances, soap, margarine, tea and frozen foods all over the world. Unilever controls subsidiaries in at least 90 countries and is one of the world’s top food firms.
