Trends and issues in the Food & Agriculture sector:

• Companies in this sector increasingly adopt Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices to demonstrate and/or deal with sustainability issues in global food supply chains. Especially large Multinational Corporations (MNCs) that operate in close proximity to the consumers have elaborate CSR statements and policies. The positive impact of these CSR policies in developing countries however, is often unconvincing and implementation still remains weak;
• Doubling global food production is necessary to sustain the increasing population and changing diets, however, this should be implemented in a way that decreases pressure on natural resources like water, land and fossil fuels and that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases;
  
• More and more large scale farming in agricultural commodity production and consequently increased marginalisation of small-scale farmers in many sectors;
  
• Increasing dominance of a few developing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and China in international trade;
  
• Trade-distorting subsidies and tariff barriers;
• Increased adoption of CSR standards systems (eg. Organic, Fairtrade,  Rainforest Alliance, Utz Certified…) by mainstream companies;
• Increasing world commodity market price volatility, food speculation and conflicts over land use;
• More focus on branding (not on production) by food multinationals;
  
• Rising importance of private labels of retailers;
  
• Resurgence in interest in agriculture as driving force for development ;
• More trade in food globally but processing and production is often still largely local;
  Increasing concentration of corporate power at in food retail, processing and distribution.