• The Baltimore Sun reports that global anti-poverty organization Oxfam has issued a report saying that major supermarket companies such as Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods and Ahold Delhaize ”share responsibility for widespread suffering of farmers and other food producers around the world … The group ranked 16 food retailers in areas such as transparency, support for small-scale producers and the treatment of supply chain workers, farmers and women. It scored all companies poorly, especially those in the United States, where the top four supermarkets control more than 40 percent of the market.”
Oxfam, the story says, “said it hopes the new research will shed light on inequality in the agri-food sector, where it says big supermarkets are squeezing value from supply chains and eroding the bargaining power of small farmers and workers, leading to low wages and poor working conditions … Oxfam singled out supermarkets as the last link in the food supply chain, saying they are earning a larger share of food commodity sales than in the past, while a smaller share is going to producers and workers.”
Oxfam, the story says, “said it hopes the new research will shed light on inequality in the agri-food sector, where it says big supermarkets are squeezing value from supply chains and eroding the bargaining power of small farmers and workers, leading to low wages and poor working conditions … Oxfam singled out supermarkets as the last link in the food supply chain, saying they are earning a larger share of food commodity sales than in the past, while a smaller share is going to producers and workers.”
- KC's View:
