The Spanish Pig Out: A Critical Analysis of Corporate Power in Spain’s Pork Industry

In recent decades, transnational corporations (TNC’s) in general and leading agribusinesses in particular have increasingly gained power to influence the rules by which they themselves must play (Clapp and Fuchs 2009: 2). Susan Sell’s (2009) three forms of power will allow me to critically analyse Vall Companys Group, Spain’s leading pork producing firm. This will help me to answer what the role of growing agribusiness firms is in governance and the implications of such growing corporate activities, on market, society and environment. This will form part of my overarching objective to prove that Spain and Vall Companys form part of the ‘globalization project’, and are highly embedded in McMichaels corporate food regimes (McMichael 2005).