Food for all means challenging monopoly capitalism

The food crisis is not primarily a question of legal rights but of who controls production, prices and distribution, argues HUGH KIRKBRIDE

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THE debate generated by the parliamentary commission on the right to food (M Star September 29) is welcome, but the framing of food as a “right” brings problems. Its legalistic approach raises the question of which rights are fundamental, and which are not. It also raises questions of how the “right” is enforced.

Where we can agree is that food is essential to human life. So the socialist approach is to look at how food can be provided for the whole of humanity. The main problem with this at the moment is the domination of the food chain by monopoly capitalism.

Throughout the food chain, global companies dominate their parts of the market. The profits are massive, while climate change is ignored (Cargill’s website refers to 800 million people going hungry each night, while not recognising their role in it). Enough food is produced to feed the world, the problem is distribution. So the problem is structural, rather than legal.

In Britain, the supermarkets’ share of the food market has grown rapidly since Covid, and so have their profits. There will be no revival of the high street if local butchers and bakers are still going out of business every week.

Supermarkets’ monopoly control has driven down the prices paid to food food processors, forcing down both relative wages for food workers, and food standards (chicken is now fairly cheap, but doesn’t taste much like chicken).

Supermarket dominance has also forced down farm prices, with some farmers deciding milk production, for example, is no longer financially viable. This has led to increased imports of milk, even though British farms are better suited to dairy farming than, say, the Netherlands.

Farms are also hostage to global monopoly suppliers of seeds and fertilisers. This exacerbates the problems for farmers in the regions most severely affected by climate change such as the Sahel and the Canadian prairies.

A structural understanding of food and agriculture leads to much wider considerations and conclusions than those reached by the right to food commission.

The idea of reviving British Restaurants is worth investigating, but the New York ones are really just an extension of the foodbanks so loved by the Tories. The Rathaus Cellar system in Germany is much more established, and while they are pleasant, if gloomy, places to eat real German food, the prices are now little different to the restaurants around them. So a broader approach is needed.

In the short-term, food trade unions should respond to the report by the parliamentary commission by looking at what immediate gains can be made to challenge monopoly capitalism in the industry. These are inevitably revisionist, rather than revolutionary, but they start to set out the path for the future of an industry that must meet basic human needs.

Any short-term practical legislation should be enabling, rather than prescriptive about “rights.” It must revise the legal definitions of monopolies, as case law over the last 50 years in the industry has actually concentrated monopoly power.

The legislation should include the promotion of producer co-ops, such as a reviving the farmer-owned Milk Marketing Board, which the Major government deemed to be a cartel (unlike the supermarkets), and the promotion of sectoral bargaining through a new Agricultural Wages Board and in the various sectors of food manufacturing, retail and delivery.

There should be price controls on essential foods, while guaranteeing fair prices to producers. Supermarkets already use milk as a loss-leader, so there must be regulation of these cross-subsidies to ensure the retailer pays suppliers fair prices across the board. This partial control of food pricing can also be used to promote healthier eating by defining essentials as ingredients, rather than processed food.

So, there is a wider challenge about the global food economy, but trade unions and socialists should engage with the opportunity raised by this parliamentary commission to take some principled positions and start confronting the massive inequalities produced by the current food economy.

Hugh Kirkbride is a former food worker and member of the Agricultural Wages Board.

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