The list of the world’s largest 500 companies by turnover contains a huge number of firms engaged in agriculture and food: firms that have carved up big chunks of the sector among themselves. At the same time, the sector is the basis of the livelihoods for many millions of farmers and farm workers who are among the poorest people in the world. The trend continues towards a further concentration of power. In the developing world, the growth of the middle class is changing tastes and diets. Demand for processed foods is sure to rise. The declared aim of agriculture, chemicals and food corporations is to grab as big a slice of the cake as possible, but they have now been joined by banks, insurance companies and the information technology industry. Since the end of the 20th century, there has been a dramatic increase in the area used to cultivate oil palm, maize, sugarcane and soybeans. These four crops are used not only as food, but also as animal feed, biofuel and industrial feedstock, earning them the moniker “flex crops”. Four Western corporations dominate the global trade of agricultural products. Now a Chinese firm has joined them.