1. The Big Business Food Industry

2. Who’s in Charge of our diets? Six or fewer companies control around 70% of the world agricultural commodity trade They are making huge profits at the expense of the small farmers who produce the food and people who pay more money each year to eat a less diverse and more processed diet Small farmers are losing their farms, and more and more people are turning to food banks (9% in Canada)

3. Why you ask? Few government restrictions or regulations to hold multinational corporations accountable for their actions WTO – World Trade Organization NAFTA – North American Free Trade Agreement Both of these allow these corporations to own and control larger portions of the global market

4. Concerns Land Distribution – in most countries agribusinesses own most of the fertile land, local people do not have land to farm. Instead they are forced to work for the large businesses making low wages and in poor working conditions Few of the profits go back into these countries

5. Genetic Engineering Agribusinesses genetically engineer seed, which they then patent. Farmers must buy seeds every year rather than gathering the ones from previous crops 2001 – Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, was sued by agribusiness Monsanto because some of Monsanto’s crops were found growing on his land. He claimed that the wind blew the seeds onto his land and that he hadn’t harvested them illegally. Monsanto won.

6. Pesticides Larger amounts of pesticides are used by the agribusinesses than by small farmers Cause damage to farmers, soil, water, and consumers “The World Health Organization estimates that 3 million people a year are poisoned by pesticides, and 200,000 die.” (Oxfam)

7. Cash Crops Most agribusinesses grow food to export rather than food to be eaten in the country in which it is grown This means that people in those countries rely on imported foods, making them more expensive Cash crops – tobacco, cocoa, coffee, wheat, rice, peanuts, etc.

8. Who’s in Control? Here are 3 Philip Morris produces: - Kraft Products- Maxwell House - Crystal Light- Kool-Aid - Tang- Alpha-bits - Grape nuts- Honeycomb - Pebbles- Raisin Bran - Shredded Wheat- Bull’s Eye BBQ Sauce - Terry’s Chocolates- Toblerone - Jell-O - Dream Whip - Taco Bell dinner kits and salsa - Velveeta- Philadelphia Cream Cheese - Oscar Meyer hot dogs- Tombstone & Digiorno Pizza - Miller Brewing Co.- Philip Morris Cigarettes

9. Nestle Nescafe- Taster’s Choice Nesquik - Carnation Golden Grahams- Cocoa Puffs Cheerios- Lucky Charms Cinnamon Toast- Magi Libby’s- Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine- Haagen Dazs Montego Sherbet- Chips Ahoy Crunch- KitKat Quality Street- Smarties Baci- After Eight Baby Ruth- Butterfinger Aero-Fancy Feast Friskies- L’Oreal Pharmaceutical products – Alcon and Galderma

10. Cargill - Barge Operations- Beef - Broilers- Cattle feeding - Cocoa Trading- Coffee - Financial brokerages- Cotton - Corn Milling- Egg Products - Fats and Oils- Feed - Ferrous Metals- Flour Milling - Fertilizers- Fruit juices - Fruits and vegetables- Grain - Leasing- Malt - Molasses- Oil seeds - Peanuts/nuts- Petroleum - Nongrain feed- Pork - Poultry- Rice Milling - Rubber- Salt - Steel- Structured Finance - Sugar - Swine production - Turkeys- Wire - Wool

11. What Can We Do? Buy products that are locally grown Buy organic foods – to reduce the amount of pesticides and chemicals entering our bodies Buy fairly traded items such as coffee Support local business instead of big box companies