One company sells 80% of all canned pumpkin, one cooperative sells 70% of all cranberry sauce, and two companies sell 60% of all carrots. That’s not great for fair prices or resiliency.
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Whole Foods’ recent decision to centralize buying for its U.S. stores will likely make it much harder for smaller producers of organic and natural foods to get to market. The move could thus further solidify the control of the corporate food giants currently dominating the organic and natural foods sector.
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With A Bone to Pick, an anthology of columns from his four years at the Times, Bittman provides a survey of his food policy analysis. But the collection also reveals Bittman’s disheartening lack of analysis about how, exactly, the American public came to find itself in the midst of such a widespread – and growing – agricultural and dietary crisis. Bittman’s proclivity to position the eater as a powerful decision-maker and federal food policy reform as the most effective path forward obscures much of the reality of who holds the power in today’s international food system.
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