Office for Environmental Programs - Theses
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ItemConcentration and market power in the Australian wheat and dairy sectors: evidence of a corporate food regime?( 2013)Corporate concentration in the food system is recognised as having detrimental impacts on farmers, food production workers and consumers. More broadly, the power and influence of dominant agribusiness corporations is increasingly evident in public policy, giving rise to concerns regarding the ability for democratic decision making in food and agricultural systems. Charting the evolution of capitalism at a world-scale through the lens of food production and consumption, food regimes theory situates these trends as hallmarks of an emerging `corporate food regime'. This research examines concentration and market power through case study analysis of two major agricultural commodity sectors in Australia, wheat and dairy. Each case study provides empirical evidence of market concentration within the commodity's supply chain, before examining the political economy of market relations in the sector. Comparing these case studies, common elements of contemporary agri-food restructuring are observable, including: industry rationalisation and consolidation; information asymmetries; the failure of competition law in Australia to prevent abuses of market power; the presence of trans-national agribusiness; an ongoing, albeit complex, role for farmer co-operatives; and a trend of replacing government regulation with weaker forms of industry or market self-regulation. Interpreting these material restructuring trajectories through the lens of food regimes theory, this research supports the notion of an emerging corporate food regime in Australia, whereby increasing concentration and market power of oligopoly firms further integrates agriculture and food systems into globalised capital flows, and is strengthen by the state's commitment to neo-liberal practice.