School of Social and Political Science

Description

The global ultra-processed food (UPF) industry is a leading driver of current and projected demand for plastics, contributing to a global pollution crisis. This paper demonstrates that there is a dynamic synergy between the development of UPFs and single-use packaging. We argue that dominant firms within the global industrial food system have access to forms of technology power that are deeply connected to their exercise of market and political power that have shaped the development of the industry in ways that lock plastics and UPFs together. Archival research shows that Big Food companies were at the forefront of technological innovations in single-use plastic packaging in the 1970s. We show how dominant firms have used various forms of power available to them to protect markets for plastic-packaged UPFs through defensive strategies to promote recycling over plastics reduction. In this way, UPF firms have evaded responsibility for the pollution crisis.