False solutions, real profits: Agribusiness' Tactics Uncovered

The report critiques the industrial agribusiness model, describing it as a network of transnational corporations and financial institutions that prioritise profit maximisation through large-scale monocultures and high-input systems. It argues that these entities promote 'false solutions'—including voluntary certifications, sustainable intensification, and regenerative agriculture—to greenwash their image, capture policy-making processes, and commodify nature through carbon markets. The document highlights the negative impacts of this model, such as deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil, human rights violations, and the displacement of small-scale farmers in Argentina, while contrasting these with 'real peoples' solutions' based on food sovereignty and agroecology.

• The agribusiness model is characterised by a concentrated network of input producers, intermediaries, processors, and retailers that prioritise profit maximisation and economies of scale, often leading to 'land grabbing' and the exploitation of low-wage labour.
• Agribusinesses employ 'false solutions' to protect their economic interests and reframe the problems they cause, ensuring that the underlying logic of profit maximisation and continuous expansion remains intact.
• Voluntary sustainability and deforestation certifications are described as self-regulatory tools that lack legal accountability and are used to shift the burden of sustainability onto consumers while allowing deforestation to continue.
• Sustainable intensification is presented as a way to increase productivity and protect forests, but the report argues it actually increases corporate control over the food system and can lead to 'intensification traps' due to high input levels.
• Regenerative agriculture has been co-opted by corporations to commodify carbon through the creation of offset credits, which the report claims are often 'fake' and do not reduce total emissions.
• Corporations exercise 'corporate capture' over international policy, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), by lobbying to include corporate-friendly targets like sustainable intensification and self-reporting instead of meaningful regulation.
• The implementation of no-till farming and GM soy in Argentina led to the violent displacement of small farmers and a loss of food sovereignty, while pesticide use increased by over 480% between 1990 and 2021.
• Case studies of companies like Unilever and JBS Foods illustrate a gap between corporate sustainability pledges and actual practices, including continued sourcing of 'conflict palm oil' and cattle from deforested land.

APA

Marentes, C., Mariën, N., & Chandrasekaran, K. (2024). False solutions, real profits: Agribusiness' Tactics Uncovered. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FOEI_The-Agribusiness-model_ENG-1.pdf

Chicago

Marentes, Carlos, Nele Mariën, and Kirtana Chandrasekaran. False solutions, real profits: Agribusiness' Tactics Uncovered. Friends of the Earth International, 2024. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FOEI_The-Agribusiness-model_ENG-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Marentes |first1=Carlos |last2=Mariën |first2=Nele |last3=Chandrasekaran |first3=Kirtana |title=False solutions, real profits: Agribusiness' Tactics Uncovered |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=March 2024 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FOEI_The-Agribusiness-model_ENG-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{marentes2024false, author = {Marentes, Carlos and Mariën, Nele and Chandrasekaran, Kirtana}, title = {{False solutions, real profits: Agribusiness' Tactics Uncovered}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FOEI_The-Agribusiness-model_ENG-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }