Organization grain todays global food crisis will not

organization GRAIN: ‘Today’s global food crisis will not be solved by large-scale in -
dustrial agriculture… but the governments, international agencies, and corporations
steering the global food system are bankrupt in solutions’ (2010, p. 147).
Building on this quotation, one should note that agribusiness is certainly not act -
ing alone in promoting the food system it envisions as ideal, nor is it the only benefi -
ciary of its practices. In this regard there is certainly a mutual ‘seeking out’ of players
in the global food regime. Examining the larger dynamics of the political economy
of the world food system, industry think tanks, research universities, and govern -
ments throughout the world in cooperation with international agencies such as the
World Bank, the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations and the World Food

Feeding the Planet or Feeding Us a Line? 377
Programme among others, shape food policy in ways that benefits agribusiness.
Consider again the international food aid regime noted above, for example, which
Murphy and McAfee (2005) argue greatly profits global agribusiness that produces
and transports food around the world in a market solely for this purpose. Critics ar-
gue that this system actually creates more food insecurity under the guise of provid -
ing assistance – contrary to what agribusiness or the sponsorship of the state would
have the public believe.
Another important collaboration between the state and agribusiness and its lob-
byists and industry associations in both the United States and the European Union
are agricultural subsidies and their implications in the world food system (see Pe-
terson, 2009), particularly for the global peasantry. And of course, probably the most
telling examples of these processes are the current global land grabs that epitomize
Gronski and Glenna’s (2009) discussion of the global, profit-driven, and technology-
intensive food production that overlooks the food injustices of the system and its
effects on people who most depend on the land (see McMichael, 2012b; Cheru and
Modi, 2013; White et al., 2013). Agribusiness acts with the complicity of the state,
international organizations and agencies who help frame and support its interests.
Grainwashing should therefore not be separated from the politics and policies that
define the food system, shaping what farmers grow and what we ultimately eat
(see Winders, 2009; Nestle, 2013). Therefore, future research should analyse further
the collaborative and interlocking power dynamics shaping CSR, hunger, and the
environment
In closing, so widespread has been the impact and so fervent are the feelings of
those refusing to be a part of the treadmill that new battle lines are being drawn and
new visions of food justice are being formed to expose grainwashing and to take
back the world food system (Bello, 2009; Patel and McMichael, 2009; Gottlieb and
Joshi, 2010; Magdoff and Tokar, 2010). As part of this, the social sciences can take
more active role in presenting this more critical alternative perspective (Rivera-Ferre,
2011). In portraying itself as socially responsible, agribusiness as ‘the supermarket to