"Of Cabbages and Kings": restructuring in the Irish food industry

Abstract

The food processing industry in Ireland has become more concentrated, diversified, and internationalised in recent years. To date, most Irish discussions have tended to treat the food industry as part of agriculture, assuming a consensus of interests around its development between farmers and industry managers. This paper questions that assumption, drawing on international studies of vertical integration in food production to explore the effects of structural change in the industry for farmers, and to a lesser extent, for industry employees and food consumers.