Conclusion - food control or food democracy?

Markets alone can't guarantee food democracy. They can't deliver enough food at the right place, price and time to meet the needs of all people. Poverty, hunger, malnutrition, declining biodiversity, contaminated food and water, soil erosion, the loss of small and family farmers and the rise of multinational food corporations are some of the consequences of a market-centred global food and agriculture policy.

Neither farmers nor consumers are benefiting from this arrangement; the big winners are the multinational food corporations who essentially control the food supply. But the industrialisation and globalisation of the food system is not unstoppable or inevitable. It is largely the consequence of food and agriculture policies made under pressure from powerful multinational corporations - policies that can be changed and institutions that can be dismantled if we choose to do so. There's a lot of work to be done, let's get on with it!