Module 1 - Big Corporations vs The Right to Safe, Healthy Food

Corporate capture refers to the concentration of power in the hands of a few multinational corporations that control seeds, agrochemicals, and agricultural inputs, influencing markets and policies.

The lecture examines genetic modification, gene editing, and synthetic biology as tools increasingly used in agriculture and explores their potential risks, regulatory gaps, and socio-economic consequences.

Safe food is food that is adequate in quantity and quality, culturally appropriate, nutritionally balanced, accessible, affordable, and produced in environmentally sustainable ways.

Food sovereignty is the right of people and communities to define their own food and agricultural systems and to produce food using ecologically sound and culturally appropriate methods.

The module emphasizes that smallholder farmers play a critical role in feeding the world and sustaining biodiversity, often more than large corporations.