Price and Income Dynamics in the Agri-Food System: A Disaggregate Perspective
PhD thesis — York University, 2015. Full text: https://archive.org/details/bnarchives_0437
Arguments
Price and Income Dynamics in the Agri-Food System: A Disaggregate Perspective
It names the mechanism behind every food-price crisis — volatility is someone's business model, and the winners lobby the rules that produce it.
High and volatile food prices since 2000 have been a redistributional battle, not a neutral market event — some agribusiness groups are "price-shapers" that actively restructure markets and regulation (ethanol mandates, derivatives exemptions) to make profitable price developments more likely, while farmers and others absorb the losses.
Why it matters
It names the mechanism behind every food-price crisis — volatility is someone's business model, and the winners lobby the rules that produce it.
Use when: When prices swing, don't ask only who is hurt — ask who wrote the swing into the rules.