The food industry is not short of friends in high places to make sure that its voice is heard more clearly than those of the people it has put out of business.

Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, sits on four government task forces, and Lord Sainsbury, although officially no longer part of Sainsbury Plc, is now Minister for Science and Innovation and a major donor to the Labour Party.

Corporate interests are well represented on the Policy Commission for Food and Farming set up by the Government to decide the future of farming in Britain. These include Iain Ferguson of Tate & Lyle Plc (formerly of Unilever Plc) and Sir Peter Davies of Sainsbury's.

Archie Norman, former chief executive of Asda, is currently Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells. He was a key advisor to William Hague and a member of the shadow cabinet, where he was dubbed the 'Green-belt destroyer'.

The outspoken Lord Haskins is probably the most influential food industrialist. Former chairman of supermarket own-brand suppliers, Northern Foods and Express Dairies, the UK's largest processed food and liquid milk processors, he also has the ear of Tony Blair on farming matters. He sits on various government task-forces and is rural recovery co-ordinator for areas affected by Foot and Mouth disease.

Tesco and Asda both sponsored fringe meetings at the Labour Party Conference in 2003.