Speaker: Jennifer Clapp (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Overview
Today’s agricultural inputs sector is highly concentrated, with just a handful of firms dominating global markets for key inputs including seeds, agrochemicals, farm machinery and fertilizers. Corporate concentration in the sector has long roots that date back over a century, and recent mergers and acquisitions across the sector have brought new attention to the power such market dominance gives the firms at the top.
In this talk, Jennifer Clapp examines the pathways by which concentrated firms in this sector have long exerted power to shape markets, technological innovation, and policy - both directly and indirectly - in ways that matter for food system outcomes.
Jennifer Clapp is a Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. She has published widely on the global governance of problems that arise at the intersection of the global economy, food security and food systems, and the natural environment.
Her recent books include Food, 3rd Edition (2020) and Speculative Harvests: Financialization, Food, and Agriculture (2018). She is a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.
The talk will be followed by an online Q&A session.
N.B. all timings refer to UK time.
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