The Global Poultry Agro/Food Complex

The globalization of the food system is a topic of growing concern as various nation/states try to obtain food security. This analysis test the hypothesis of the existence of a poultry agro/food complex being constructed by transnational corporations. We focus on the concept of "global sourcing" and argue that the rise in economic power of transnational corporations limits the abilities of individual nation/st.ates to direct their agricultural policies toward national ends. We also argue that with the increasing transnational character of the large corporations the usefulness of individual nation/states or individual commodities as units of analysis decreases. We conclude that U.S., European. and Japanese transnational corporations arc indeed creating a global poultry agro/food complex based on the concept of "global sourcing'', Our findings also suggest that these same transnational corporations are very active in several other commodity sectors.