Saturday, August 16, 2014

Fact to digest

In the US, research has shown that only about 16 cents on every dollar makes its way back to the farmer, with the other 84 cents distributed along the food production chain.

10 of the world’s biggest and most influential food and beverage companies are so powerful that their policies can have a major impact on the diets and working conditions of people worldwide, as well as on the environment.

Chris Jochnick, director of the private sector department at Oxfam America, said “If you look at the massive global food system, it’s hard to get your head around. Just a handful of companies can dictate food choices, supplier terms and consumer variety.” According to Jochnick, many of these companies are “unaware of the social and environmental impact that they are creating or facilitating.”

These 10 companies are among the largest in the world by a number of measures. All of them had revenues in the tens of billions of dollars in 2013. Five of these companies had at least $50 billion in assets, while four had more than $6 billion in profits last year. Additionally, these 10 companies directly employed more than 1.5 million people combined — and contracted with far more. Many of these companies and their brands are extremely well known. One reason is that they often spend huge sums on advertising. Nine of these 10 companies were among the 100 largest media spenders in the world in 2012. Coca-Cola, the world’s sixth largest advertiser, spent more than $3 billion in 2012 on advertising. Unilever’s media expenditure, at $7.4 billion, was the second-highest worldwide.

Nestle is the largest and had more than $100 billion in sales and more than $11 billion in profits in 2013. The Switzerland food giant alone employed roughly 333,000 people.

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