Transformations, policy, and politics in the agri-food system: entanglements of concentration, financialization, and digitalization

Abstract

Against the backdrop of a crisis-prone food system, this article analyzes the entanglements of corporate concentration, financialization, and digitalization as three major transformations that significantly shape the food system. It is based on a literature review as part of a larger investigation into the political economy of digitalization in the food system. The material and discursive entanglements of concentration, financialization, and digitalization in the food system are complex. Corporate influence has historically shaped government policies, sustainability narratives, and technology development, contributing to the further entrenchment of existing power structures and inequalities and reducing diversity within the food system at the expense of long-term sustainability. This article sheds light on current economic and political developments in this field, critically discussing them in light of pervasive claims that digital technologies and data-driven approaches to food and agriculture have the potential to support a shift toward more sustainability. It concludes however, that against the background of the identified entanglements, for this to happen, national and international policies need to break with current patterns of power and path dependencies to avoid further corporate concentration and financialization and make the food system more resilient, less crisis-prone and more sustainable.