Professor Jennifer Clapp - Corporate power in the food system

This episode is a supplementary full interview with Professor Jennifer Clapp from Episode 2 of the Edible Empire podcast series. Here, we explore how an increasingly monopolised system of multinational corporations operates as de facto states within the global food system, exercising power over land, labour, trade, and policy in ways that rival or exceed nation-states.

If empires once flew flags, today they file annual reports. This episode examines how large agrifood corporations increasingly function as sovereign actors within global food systems. From controlling vast transnational supply chains and shaping trade rules, to influencing national policy and disciplining labour across borders, corporations now wield powers historically associated with states. Focusing on agribusiness, food traders, and retailers, the episode asks how corporate concentration has reconfigured food imperialism, turning companies into the new “nations” of food empires, and what this means for accountability, democracy, and food sovereignty.

Professor Jennifer Clapp highlights how mega-mergers in the agricultural inputs sector allow a small cartel to exercise immense structural power, locking in an industrial model that dictates what society views as "normal" food practices, while trapping countries in the Global South in dependency loops that prioritise luxury exports over local food security. Despite the immense political and economic inertia behind this consolidation, we close with a message of hope, emphasising that because this extractive system was constructed by humans, it can be dismantled through active political engagement and collective action.

Resources from this interview:

• https://uwaterloo.ca/scholar/jclapp/home
• https://ipes-food.org/people/jennifer-clapp/
• https://uwaterloo.ca/environment-resources-and-sustainability/profiles/jennifer-clapp

To view all the links to the websites and documents, visit the show notes on our website.

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