Jennifer Clapp discusses Canadian food systems on The Agenda
Panelists, clockwise from top left, Sylvain Charlebois (Dalhousie University), Keldon Bester (Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project), Gary Sands (Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers) and Jennifer Clapp (University of Waterloo)
SERS Professor Jennifer Clapp participated in a panel discussion on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paiken on Nov. 18 on the theme of whether Canada has a monopoly problem in its food system.
Professor Clapp’s work focuses on the drivers and socio‐ecological consequences of corporate concentration and power within food systems.
The TVO panel discussed consolidation all along supply chains in Canada’s food system, from farm inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and machinery, to grain handling, food processing and grocery retail. Professor Clapp emphasized that it is imperative that we understand the dynamics of corporate concentration in food systems because food is a basic need, a human right, provides livelihoods for over a third of humanity, and important for ecosystems and culture.
Professor Clapp’s forthcoming book, Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why it Matters (MIT Press, 2025) examines the rise of corporate concentration and power in the agricultural inputs sector.
Watch the panel discussion on Is Monopoly Power Undermining the Canadian Food System from The Agenda's site.