Italian and European politics – with the support of the large agricultural confederations, from Coldiretti to Copa-Cogeca – are handing over our food sovereignty and our food to international finance.
It is necessary, now more than ever, to organize a mass protest involving citizens and consumers, alongside farmers and breeders, for a democratic revolution against an increasingly unjust system. #CleanSpades.
1) Financial oligarchy, introduction
The triad Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) currently:
– manages assets of 20,7 trillion (20.700 billion) dollars
– is the majority shareholder in 95% of the top 500 companies listed on Wall Street (S&P 500)
– controls the votes of the boards of directors of at least 23% of the aforementioned 500 companies (S&P 500). (1)
The dominance of these investment funds (plus a fourth, Geode) in all corners of the real economy – from technologies to information, energy, every industrial sector (from pharmaceuticals to war) – offers some clues about their supranational and transnational political power.
2) Agriculture and global finance
Four ‘Corporations’ – Archer-Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, Dreyfus – control between 70 and 90 per cent of the global agricultural commodities market, according to research conducted by iPES FOOD, which pointed to their financial speculation on the stock markets as the primary cause of the global ‘food security’ crisis in the Covid era, as well as the Ukrainian crisis. (2) Combination:
– Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM), US$ 93,935 billion in revenue (2023), has Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Co. as its largest shareholder (11,3%). Among others, BlackRock Advisors LLC (6,5%), State Street Corporation (5,8%), Geode Capital Management LLC (1,9%), BlackRock Life Ltd. (1,8%)
– Bunge Global SA, US$59,540 billion in revenue (2023), is owned by Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Co. (13,2%), BlackRock Advisors LLC (7,2%), State Street Corporation (4,7%), BlackRock Life Ltd. (2,5%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2,3%), and various other investment funds
– Cargill, US$ 177 billion in turnover and 160.000 employees (2023), is a ‘private company’ still in the hands of the heirs of the founders’ family (Cargill, MacMillan)
– Louis Dreyfus Company BV (LDC), US$ 50,6 billion in turnover (2023), has Margarita Louis-Dreyfus as its majority shareholder, joined by Philipp Hildebrand, vice-president of BlackRock. (3)
3) Seeds, agrochemicals and finance
The global market of seeds and agrochemicals is itself dominated – as I have been reporting for years (4) – by four giants that control 60-70% of it:
– Bayer AG, which acquired Monsanto, US$116 billion turnover (2023). Among the top 20 shareholders are Vanguard (with three investment funds) and BlackRock Equity Dividend Institute
– BASF AG, US$68,9 billion turnover (2023). BlackRock Inc. is its largest investor, among about 900.000
– Corteva, born from the merger between Dow Agrosciences and DuPont Pioneer, US$ 17,2 billion in revenue (2023). The top three shareholders are Vanguard Fiduciary Trust, BlackRock Advisors LLC and State Street Co. LLC
– ChemChina, which bought Syngenta, CN¥326,75 billion (US$45,25 billion) in revenue in 2023. It has only one shareholder, state-owned (PRC) Sinochem Holdings Corporation Ltd.
4) Fertilisers and finance
Fertilisers in turn express a global market – growing from US$ 170,4 billion to US$ 192,5 billion between 2022 and 2023 – dominated by a few giants. The ‘Big 4’ mentioned in the upper paragraph are joined by:
– Nutrien (Canada), US$ 29 billion in revenue 2023. BlackRock and Vanguard are among the top investors
– Yara International ASA (Norway), US$ 15,4 billion turnover in 2023. Main shareholders are Norwegian and European investment funds
– The Mosaic Company (US$13,7 billion 2023 revenue). Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street and Geode are among the top seven shareholders
– ICL Group (Israel), US$ 7,5 billion in revenue 2023. Vanguard ranks seventh among shareholders
– Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, US$7,5 billion in 2023 revenue. State Street is the sixth-largest shareholder
– CF Industries Holdings (US$6,6 billion in revenue and 1,5 billion in net income in 2023). Vanguard Group and BlackRock Inc are the top two shareholders, State Street in fourth place, Geode in eighth.
5) Agro-finance and land grabbing
Global agro-finance has made extensive use and still often resorts – in countries where governance is weaker (in Africa, Central and South America, Asia) – to land grabbing. That means:
– the violent occupation of large areas of territory and the deportation of local communities, with the help of public and/or private militias,
– to proceed with deforestation, or in any case to change the use of the land. Cattle pastures in South America, intensive monocultures (GMO soya and oil palm primarily) everywhere (5,6,7).
Precisely therefore the writer launched two initiatives, in 2014 and 2019, against the use of palm oil in food and the boycott of purchases of palm, GMO soya and beef from the American continent (8,9).
6) Agro-finance, the production model
The production model of agro-finance pursues the objective of maximizing returns on investment through aggregate concentration of the means of production (land, agricultural inputs), production (crop and animal) and markets. (10)
The economy of scale is based on a few commodities, to be produced with the maximum possible yields. ‘Whatever it takes’, even at the cost of irremediably poisoning ecosystems and populations with toxic chemicals. As indeed happens. (11)
7) Family and peasant farming, a slow agony
Family and peasant agriculture – in the designs of agrofinance and the lobbies at its service, such as Coldiretti and Copa-Cogeca – is destined to a slow agony. Big Ag’s strategy is there for anyone to see:
– liberalise and promote the use of its own inputs in agriculture in every country in the world, from patented seeds (GMOs and NGTs above all, especially if ‘herbicide resistant’) to herbicides
– thus controlling both production costs and yields. So as to achieve absolute domination over agri-food production on a planetary level
– liberalise markets with free trade agreements that (obviously) do not include reciprocity clauses. So as to be able to speculate on commodity prices, even with the financial leverage of futures
– impose unsustainable bureaucracy for less structured companies, through policies based on the digitalisation and criminalization of animal husbandry (12)
– expand their large estates and attract public funding to them, from the Farm Bill (USA) to the common agricultural policy, CAP (EU).
8) Agro-finance vs. farmers
Family and peasant farms (still 94,8% of the total in the European Union) are the first to be forced to close, as has already happened both in the EU and on the American continent. Some examples:
– in the EU, 5,4 million European agricultural holdings (37% of the 14,7 million active holdings in 2005) were closed in the following 15 years (Eurostat, 2020)
– in the USA, where family farms represent 97% of the total (1,884 million), 140.000 farms (7%) were closed between 2017 and 2022 (USDA, 2022)
– in Argentina, 100 small farms have disappeared in recent years. (13)
The ‘comfort zone’ for larger farms (>100 ha)is in turn illusory, as already observed in Eastern Europe (i.e. Romania). Where they too, even if already converted to the diktat of intensive monocultures, cannot withstand competition and unfair competition from agro-industrial giants.
9) Energy vs. agriculture
Photovoltaic systems and wind turbines are installed, with expropriations ‘for public utility’, in all agricultural areas and rural landscapes where it is not possible to apply the Big Ag production model based on large estates and quantity, ‘whatever it takes’.
Simply because, in these areas, financial investments in energy are more profitable. Thanks also to the support of public funding which, not surprisingly – in Italy, in the PNRR – Coldiretti has diverted from agriculture to photovoltaic parks. (14)
10) Goods, not food
Local foods, characteristic of our cultures and traditions, are destined to disappear together with our agriculture. The propaganda for new GMOs (NGTs, New Genomic Techniques) – which Paolo De Castro inaugurated at the dawn of the European legislature now coming to an end, in 2019, and still continues with the support of almost all Italian MEPs (15,16) – is the most serious threat to agrobiodiversity is seed control by farmers.
The new food that agri-finance has already introduced on our tables regardless of the territories, the seasons, the quality. It even ignores food and nutritional safety, the protection of human and workers’ rights, respect for the environment and animal welfare. It is just a commodity like drugs, tools, ammunition. It is produced where it costs the least, it is processed as best as possible and it must offer investors the maximum return.
11) Globalization vs food sovereignty
The globalization of agri-food supply chains – decided by international agro-finance and carried out by the Eurocrats at its service, with a plethora of free trade agreements without reciprocity clauses – decrees the end not only of our agriculture but also that of our food sovereignty.
Large-scale organized distribution is itself part of this system, through which consumers will progressively lose the ability to choose local food. Only to find on the shelf what is most convenient for agribusiness. Thus in Europe, for example:
– fruit and vegetables from South America and Africa, thanks to the free trade agreements between the EU and Mercosur countries and the more recent ones with Chile and Kenya. Obviously without paying attention to the residues of pesticides banned in the EU (17)
– meat from ‘partner’ countries, such as the USA with herds of tens of thousands of cattle and chickens disinfected in chlorine (18). And Canada, where cattle are fed animal meal and treated with hormones (19,20)
– cereals and legumes from Canada, sprayed with herbicides in the post-harvest phase. (21) With the threat of being forced to accept goods with other pesticides not allowed in the EU, ‘thanks’ to the CETA agreement (22)
– GMO wheat, perhaps even GMO soya with pig genes from Argentina and Brazil, which Ursula von der Leyen has just reiterated are our ‘partners’ for food supplies (23,24,25).
12) Democratic revolution
‘Democracy will not survive with this concentration of economic and political power‘ (Bernie Sanders). (1)
Citizens and consumers must realise that the dictatorship of finance over politics can have deadly effects on the lives of us all.
We claim therefore our food sovereignty and the rights of family and peasant agriculture on which 70% of our food depends. (26)
Let’s all join, #UnitedFarmers and citizens, to the European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC) to combat false representations. (27)
Let’s mobilise in the streets and let’s exercise all the tools available, including the ballot boxes, to change this system.
#PaceTerraDignità, our program. (28)
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Theo Andrew. Bernie Sanders: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street ‘oligarchy’ threatens democracy. ETF streams. 2.1.24 https://tinyurl.com/3s8f8k9u
(2) Marta Strinati. Rising prices and food crisis in times of war. Background in the iPES FOOD report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(3) Sources: Market Screener, 28.3.24/XNUMX/XNUMX; Forbes, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus & family https://tinyurl.com/28t8vukc. Feed & Grain, Louis Dreyfus Co. releases 2023 integrated report 21.3.24 https://tinyurl.com/h4tevu89
(4) Dario Dongo. Seeds, the 4 masters of the world. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(5) Dario Dongo, Isis Consuelo Sanlucar Chirinos. Land grabbing and deforestation in Brazil, barbarism continues. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(6) Brazil, land grabbing and deforestation for ‘sustainable’ palm oil from Ferrero and Big Food. Open letter. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(7) Oil palm in Latin America: monoculture and violence. Land. 26.3.24 https://tinyurl.com/mr44w446
(8) Dario Dongo. Stop palm oil. GIFT’s petition. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(9) Dario Dongo. Land robbery and deforestation, palm oil and GMO soybeans. #Buycott! GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.8.19
(10) Frederic Mousseau. 38 Billion Dollar Question – Who is Driving the Destructive Industrial Agriculture Model? Oakland Institute. 30.9.22 https://tinyurl.com/3p5kk3mu
(11) Marta Strinati. Pesticides, two thirds of the planet at risk of environmental pollution. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(12) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. IED, the ‘stable-killer’ directive. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(13) “We lived in the free market in the ’90s and disappeared 100 million products in the field”. TerraViva. 19.1.24 https://tinyurl.com/4fyfdw6m
(14) Dario Dongo. National action plan for pesticides, sustainable agriculture and PNRR. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(15) Dario Dongo. GMO, the new empire that is advancing. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(16) Dario Dongo. New GMOs, the final betrayal. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(17) Dario Dongo. Green light for EU agreements with Chile and Kenya. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(18) Texas, mega-fire kills 18.000 dairy cows. Rethinking farming, in the Americas and Europe. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(19) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. CETA, Canadian meat from cattle fed with animal meal. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(20) Dario Dongo. Beef with hormones from Canada to the EU. CETA, what guarantees? GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 25.1.21
(21) Dario Dongo. Glyphosate in wheat and Canadian legumes, all the fault of the snow? GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.10.19
(22) Dario Dongo. CETA, Canada announces battle with Europe over pesticides and GMOs. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(23) Dario Dongo. Unfair competition, yet another mockery of farmers in the EU. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(24) Dario Dongo. GMO HB4 wheat conquers the world. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(25) Dario Dongo. Molecular agriculture, GMO soy with pig genes. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(26) Dario Dongo. Rights of the peasants, UN Declaration. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(27) Dario Dongo. Farmers in protest, the viral deception of Coldiretti & Co. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(28) Dario Dongo. Peace, Land and Dignity. Our movement in the 2024 European elections. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Related posts:
Food sovereignty in Italy, ABC. Reflections and proposals to the new minister
Unfair trade practices, Paris lesson to Coldiretti and Confindustria
Food sovereignty and sustainable development in agriculture, open letter to the minister
AgriCorporateFinance, yet another Coldiretti fiasco at the expense of farmers. #CleanSpades
