End Corporate Influence
Corporations have historically unprecedented power over our food system, enabling them to control the agricultural research agenda, subvert market competition, and heavily influence regulation, federal spending, trade and agricultural agreements.
Large food and agrichemical corporations also dominate the public conversation about food and farming. Taking their cues from the tobacco industry, they use stealth public relations tactics to preserve their markets and advance policy agendas.
Agrichemical corporations spend tens of millions of dollars a year to spread misleading messages about the safety and necessity of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and to undermine public confidence in the benefits of organic and ecological farming. These myths bolster a food system that delivers billions of dollars a year in profits to agribusinesses from fossil-fuel-intensive production and costly inputs — including pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones and genetically engineered crops.
Friends of the Earth fights to reclaim democratic control of our food system, publishes investigative reports that reveal industry’s covert communications strategies and disseminates the science that debunks Big Ag’s myths.
Feed the World
One of the most destructive myths spread by corporate public relations is that we need industrial agriculture to feed the world.
The science is clear:
- Feeding the world sustainably requires that we rapidly transition to ecological farming methods that protect the soil, water, biodiversity and other essential resources to grow food now and in the future.
- Decades of scientific evidence show that organic and agroecological farming yield enough to feed a growing world population.
- Data also show that ecological farming is the most effective agricultural response to the environmental challenges that threaten our future food security, such as climate change, soil erosion, water scarcity and loss of biodiversity.
The Solution to Hunger
While many people equate “feeding the world” with the need to produce more food, research consistently shows that world hunger is not primarily a problem of overall supply of food, but rather of poverty, lack of democracy and unequal access to land, water and other resources. The solution to hunger hinges on creating a more sustainable, democratic and fair food system for all, rather than producing more food under unequal and ecologically destructive conditions.
Shut the Revolving Door
For far too long, individuals with ties to agribusiness, agrichemical and pharmaceutical companies have been appointed to senior government positions with the power regulate food and farming.
Decisions to allow routine antibiotic use in agriculture, harmful pesticides in food production, and weaken worker safety regulations throughout the food chain protect corporate bottom lines at the expense of public health, rural communities, animal welfare, and the environment.
Keeping agribusiness leaders out of government agencies is key to reclaiming our democracy and protecting public health and the environment.
Today more than 115 local officials sent a letter to Congress urging the rejection of any language in the 2023 Farm Bill that would limit local government authority to regulate toxic pesticides.
On the heels of new federal climate and agriculture policies geared toward supporting agricultural carbon markets, a new report reveals how this approach will fail to address the climate crisis while enabling the largest agribusiness corporations to entrench their market power and greenwash their operations.
The new Global Biodiversity Framework announced today fails to lay the groundwork for the transformational change needed to address the biodiversity crisis.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act is a false promise to farmers and a failure on climate; companies like Bayer are showing exactly how they would make money off these schemes.
Based on a recent poll, 91.7 percent of farmers surveyed are concerned that Bayer-Monsanto will control data about farm practices.
Compared with industrial agriculture, organic farming is less energy intensive, helps pollinators and other beneficial insects flourish and promotes biodiversity.
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Learn MoreGenetically Engineered Soil Microbes: Risks and Concerns
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Learn MoreAgricultural Carbon Markets, Payments, and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab
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Learn MoreMerchants of Poison: How Monsanto Sold the World on a Toxic Pesticide