The Next Famine; American Transnational Corporations and The Global Food

[自発展開型]
古川嗣洋（経済学部3年）
指導教員：バティー, ロジャー

要旨

This paper examines the difficulties posed by shortages and unequal distribution in the global food supply. There are problems which the world must address; and without any political will to exploit power in the name of food, the market may be left to provide. But can this current market model, dominated by giant U.S. multinationals really provide a fix? The present report provides an overview of this, giving examples of the actions taken and the road ahead.

I believe this topic must be put forward because what we eat today results from unfair dominance of American transnational corporation. The food we eat today comes at great expense – lives of poor farmers in developing countries. For study cases, I will analyze ventures done by Smithfield Food, Inc. and Monsanto Company. Smithfield Food, Inc., which dominates world pig meat production, entered European market, developed highly-organized meat packing system through weak regulations in European countries. On the other hand, Monsanto Company distributes its GM seeds to foreign countries, creating control over global agricultural products- such as seeds, and herbicide. Their businesses done in different regions of world have created agricultural wealth, but at the same time have left deep scar on the farmers in developing countries.

Throughout this report, analysis is done by using data from FAO, UNDP, World Resources Institute, and other official data. Other written document from magazines, books, and news articles will be referred to enhance my analysis. After given the opportunity to see the current global food crisis, this report addresses what can be done to tackle the issue by analyzing the next global food crisis.