An edition of Power Play: The Future of Food (2024)

Power Play: The Future of Food by Colin Todhunter

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Last edited by ColinT1632
January 12, 2025 | History
An edition of Power Play: The Future of Food (2024)

Power Play: The Future of Food by Colin Todhunter

Open-access ebook and the third instalment in a trilogy of books by the author exploring the global food system. This concise book examines how corporate consolidation and political centralisation intertwine to undermine democratic processes, emphasising the implications of these trends for food production. There is a critical examination of the ongoing corporate capture of Indian agriculture, highlighting the involvement of major global corporations. Despite a year-long farmers' agitation in India leading to the revocation of three controversial farm laws in 2021, the Indian government continues to pursue policies that favour corporatisation.

The book also critiques an increasingly technocratic approach to food production (AI, cloud platforms, genetic engineering, ‘precision’ agriculture etc.). By framing the discussion around monopolistic technologies, it challenges readers to explore more equitable and democratic alternatives, not least agroecology. The roots of the ongoing economic crisis in the Western countries are explored too. This crisis is linked to the shift towards authoritarianism and the narrative of ‘new normal’ based on top-down stakeholder capitalism, net-zero and a ‘food transition’.

Other key topics include a discussion on health implications stemming from current food systems and an analysis of how land is increasingly viewed as a commodity rather than a vital resource. The book also examines what the future of food may look like if we do not act and traces the shift from traditional farming to a technology-driven one-world food system and transhumanism.

This multifaceted approach identifies the need for urgent action against entrenched power structures that perpetuate corporate dependency and undermine the vibrancy of local communities. The book urges readers to reconsider the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘progress’ while recognising the transformative potential of re-localising food systems and reconnecting with traditional ecological wisdom. By drawing on agrarianism and historical movements, the book aims to inspire action towards reclaiming food sovereignty and challenging state-corporate power.

Publish Date
Publisher
Global Research

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter I:
Consolidated Power
Chapter II:
Sick to Death
Chapter III:
Commodification of Farmland
Chapter IV:
Digital Panopticon and the Future of Food
Chapter V:
Manifesto for Corporate Control and Technocratic Tyranny
Chapter VI:
From Agrarianism to Transhumanism: Long March to Dystopia
Chapter VII:
Platforms of Control and the Unbreakable Spirit
Chapter VIII:
Ongoing Corporate Capture of Indian Agriculture
Chapter IX:
Amazon Gets Fresh, Bayer Loves Basmati
Chapter X:
From Monsanto to Bayer: Worst of Both Worlds
Chapter XI:
Bayer’s ‘Backward’ Claim: Bid for Control of Indian Agriculture
Chapter XII:
You Are Still the Enemy Within
Chapter XIII:
Reclaim the Future
Chapter XIV:
In 1649…

Edition Notes

Published in
Canada
Copyright Date
2024

Contributors

Author name as appears on this edition
Colin Todhunter

The Physical Object

Format
e-book

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL56967653M

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL41942261W

Excerpts

The book is the third instalment in a trilogy of ebooks by the author exploring the global food system. It evolved from a series of articles originally published by various media outlets and written by the author and follows the February 2022 publication of Food, Dependency and Dispossession: Resisting the New World Order and the December 2023 release of Sickening Profits: The Global Food System's Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth.

This new book draws on and develops many of the themes presented in the first two. In particular, it returns to India to explore what has happened over the last 22 months (since the publication of the first book).

More generally, it looks at the intertwining of political centralisation and corporate consolidation that is undermining democratic processes, economic diversity and local autonomy. This unholy alliance is creating a self-reinforcing, technocratic dystopia that concentrates power in the hands of a super-wealthy elite, which increasingly depicts anyone who challenges it as the ‘enemy within’.

In this respect, the book weds the topic of food to the wider dynamics of power in society, which is becoming increasingly concentrated, resulting in the domination of both resources and populations and seeking to shape the very fabric of our lives and beliefs about who we are and what we could or should be. Such an analysis is integral to gaining a deeper understanding of the food system and the influence of global agribusiness and the tech giants that are increasingly moving into the food and agriculture sector.

The following discussion is driven by a conviction in the transformative power of re-localising food systems, revitalising traditional ecological wisdom and rekindling our connection to the land that nourishes us. At its core, it challenges us to question our understanding of human progress and development.
added by ColinT1632.

It forms part of the introduction section

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January 12, 2025 Edited by ColinT1632 Edited without comment.
January 12, 2025 Edited by ColinT1632 Edited without comment.
November 18, 2024 Edited by ColinT1632 Edited without comment.
November 18, 2024 Created by ColinT1632 Added new book.