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Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to demonstrate the linkages between global capital, industrial animal agriculture and diets. By articulating the implications of increased financialisation, I argue that increased meat production does not automatically lead to improvements in nutrition and livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

The flow of global capital administered by corporate regimes and international financial institutions has created asymmetries of power and increased corporate concentration, shifting the way animal-sourced foods are produced and consumed, giving rise to “meatification of diets”. The paper aims to demonstrate the linkages between global capital, industrial animal agriculture and diets. It first articulates the economic and financial structure of livestock system, which include increased intensification of production, high level of horizontal and vertical integration, corporate concentration and horizontal ownership. Next, the chapter analysis a unique dataset of investment portfolio of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to evidence how public financing is contributing to intensification and corporate concentration. The paper argues that industrial livestock production systems are justified and propagated by both private and public sector stakeholders around two “do good” narratives, first of solving malnutrition and second of improving rural livelihoods. However, the gains from increased productivity per unit through industrial production practices are insufficient in addressing the stated “do good” objectives as externalised costs of labour exploitation, disease risk and food insecurity created from the industrialised production process, in turn disproportionately impacts the very populations facing malnutrition and livelihood insecurity.