Crime and Harm in the Food Industry

It is an important obviousness to state that food is an integral part of human existence. The production and distribution of food is significant for many national economies, while also being integral to the health, well-being and sustainability of planet Earth and its people. How the industry is organized, for example, is central to understanding and managing climate catastrophe. Thus, by its very scale and ubiquitous presence in life across the world, the food industry has enormous potential for harms and crimes. The global food industry – colloquially known as ‘Big Food’ – is not only a significant source of a variety of harms and crimes with potentially devastating effects on individuals and communities, but also reproduces and exacerbates the inequalities between the Global North and the South, both historically and contemporaneously. The chapter considers this variety of harm and crime, then addresses the inabilities or reluctance of governments to mitigate the harms and crimes of ‘Big Food’ through regulation, tendencies related to claims for corporate social responsibility by the industry itself. In essence, the chapter argues that the harms and crimes of ‘Big Food’ are an effect of structural power.