How do hedge funds and asset management firms (e.g. BlackRock) influence food governance & shape our diets?
This paper was an eye-opener for me - and it's open access!
Plus, it's quite interesting background to the ongoing German farmers' protests...
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What is the purpose of ultra-processed food? An exploratory analysis of the financialisation of ultra-processed food corporations & implications for #publichealth
@NoraGottlieb The background to the farmers' riot is that their subsidies are being cut ("protest" connotes civic participation, not trying to assault the minister of the economy). It's not about ultra-processed food, because the farmers don't care about food quality, beyond longstanding Nazi obsession with wellness and the appearance of naturalness.
@Alon I agree, that is the "smaller picture". I do think that it is worthwhile to also look at the bigger picture of how food systems are governed, e.g. to understand pressures for cutting labor and production costs, at the expense of workers, the environment, animals, etc.
@NoraGottlieb They are not workers; they are owners who are unhappy that unemployment is too low so they can't abuse workers. Workers don't own tractors that they can use to blockade roads. The bigger picture is that far right violence is normalized and even elements of the left are uncomfortable with calling for repressing it (e.g. banning AfD, banning violent protests from the right and not just from Muslims, etc.).
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