Study title

Despite the widespread belief that leading retailers in the UK enjoy some sort of monopoly power over suppliers of food, the retailers themselves retort that in reality they have been the saviours of British farmers. The study aims to analyse the origins and developments of what are undoubtedly close commercial relations. Using archival evidence and interviews, the study focuses on the introduction of intensive rearing technologies in British white meat farming after 1945, and, comparing with developments in the US and Australia, examines why food retailers intervened in the industry's organisation during its experimental phase, but then stopped short of acquiring ownership interests in the leading producers of intensively reared chicken and pork. Despite enormous controversy, intensive rearing has had a profound impact on meat production and retailing. From negligible beginnings in the early 1950s, poultry and pork meat rose to one third of all meat consumed in Britain by 1990. This will be the first project systematically to study the historical emergence of intensive rearing technologies and their impact on the structure of the British agricultural sector and retailing. It therefore provides much needed historical context to the current concerns about retailer market power.