CORPORATE POWER IN GLOBAL AGRIFOOD GOVERNANCE edited by Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance Food, Health, and the Environment Series Editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College Keith Douglass Warner, Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture through Social Networks Christopher M. Bacon, V. Ernesto Méndez, Stephen R. Gliessman, David Goodman, and Jonathan A. Fox, eds., Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods, and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh, eds., Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs, eds., Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance edited by Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America on recycled paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Corporate power in global agrifood governance / edited by Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs. p. cm.—(Food, health, and the environment) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01275-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-51237-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Farm produce—marketing. 2. Agricultural industries. 3. International business enterprises. 4. Globalization. I. Clapp, Jennifer, 1963– II. Fuchs, Doris A. HD9000.5.c67 2009 382'.41—dc22 2008042146 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Series Foreword vii Acknowledgments ix Contributors xi List of Acronyms xv 1 Agrifood Corporations, Global Governance, and Sustainability: A Framework for Analysis 1 Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs I Corporate Power in International Retail and Trade Governance 27 2 Retail Power, Private Standards, and Sustainability in the Global Food System 29 Doris Fuchs, Agni Kalfagianni, and Maarten Arentsen 3 Certifi cation Standards and the Governance of Green Foods in Southeast Asia 61 Steffanie Scott, Peter Vandergeest, and Mary Young 4 In Whose Interests? Transparency and Accountability in the Global Governance of Food: Agribusiness, the Codex Alimentarius, and the World Trade Organization 93 Elizabeth Smythe 5 Corporate Interests in US Food Aid Policy: Global Implications of Resistance to Reform 125 Jennifer Clapp vi Contents II Corporations and Governance of Genetically Modifi ed Organisms 153 6 Feeding the World? Transnational Corporations and the Promotion of Genetically Modifi ed Food 155 Marc Williams 7 Corporations, Seeds, and Intellectual Property Rights Governance 187 Susan K. Sell 8 The Troubled Birth of the “Biotech Century”: Global Corporate Power and Its Limits 225 Robert Falkner 9 Technology, Food, Power: Governing GMOs in Argentina 253 Peter Newell 10 Corporate Power and Global Agrifood Governance: Lessons Learned 285 Doris Fuchs and Jennifer Clapp Index 297 Series Foreword I am pleased to present the fourth book in the Food, Health, and the Environment series. This series explores the global and local dimensions of food systems and examines issues of access, justice, and environmental and community well-being. It includes books that focus on the way food is grown, processed, manufactured, distributed, sold, and consumed. Among the matters addressed are what foods are available to communi- ties and individuals, how those foods are obtained, and what health and environmental factors are embedded in food-system choices and out- comes. The series focuses not only on food security and well-being but also on regional, state, national, and international policy decisions and economic and cultural forces. Food, Health, and the Environment books provide a window into the public debates, theoretical considerations, and multidisciplinary perspectives that have made food systems and their connections to health and the environment important subjects of study. Robert Gottlieb, Occidental College Series editor Acknowledgments This book originated with a workshop held in Waterloo, Ontario, in December 2006 on the theme of corporate power in global food gover- nance. We would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the Faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo for fi nancial support for that workshop. We are grateful to Clay Morgan and Sandra Minkkinen at the MIT Press for shepherding the project through the publication process, and to Robert Gottlieb and three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments. We would also like to thank Alex Bota, Matthew Bunch, Kim Burnett, Linda Swanston, and Candace Wormsbecker for research and editorial assis- tance. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the contributors to this book, as well as to our families and friends, for their patience and support throughout the publication process.