A micro-struggle against food imperialism: A conference and a Turkish hero

We are in Lisbon from September 9-12, 2026. I will be presenting a paper at the 2026 Annual Scientific Conference held by the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) in Lisbon, as part of the session titled "Health and Healthcare 1: Social inequities, health and political economy: public health for who?" 

Since the content of the paper is consistent with what I have written in this column, I believe it would be useful to rewrite and publish a portion of the text in Turkish. 

But first, I will talk about my source of inspiration, a Turkish hero: Tarhana Osman

Happy reading!

"IF YOU CONTROL A NATION'S NUTRITION POLICIES, YOU GOVERN THAT NATION."

In the mid-twentieth century, there was a military veterinarian, biochemist, and intellectual who challenged the system single-handedly against imperialist food policies and the dumping of American agricultural surpluses into the country in order to defend Turkey's agricultural independence and public health: Dr. Osman Nuri Koçtürk, known in the memory of the public and the working class as "Tarhana Osman." Defending tarhana, a fermented yogurt-grain soup with local and cultural roots, as a scientific shield of sovereignty against industrial margarines, synthetic wheats, and chemical-laden import substitutes, Koçtürk had proven decades ago how food imperialism enslaves societies through insidious methods.

A MICRO-STRUGGLE AGAINST THE NEOLIBERAL FOOD REGIME: THE REGULATION OF SUGAR CONSUMPTION, CAPITALIST AGRICULTURE, AND THE BIG PHARMA SPIRAL

1. Introduction and the Structural Position of the Food Sector in Capitalist Agriculture

The capitalist food regime is not merely an innocent field of production that meets humanity's nutritional needs; on the contrary, it is an industrial global supply chain mechanism designed for capital accumulation. Within this regime, the agri-industrial complex subjects agricultural production to the ruthless profit logic of global value chains. Land, labor, and biological life are relentlessly commodified to extract maximum surplus value. This transforms traditional agriculture from a localized means of social reproduction into a corporate entity under the control of transnational capital.

Within this systemic integrity, the food sector—especially the mass production of ultra-processed foods dependent on refined sugars and chemical additives—is one of the founding pillars of capitalist profitability. The political economy of sugar plays a decisive role here: refined sugar is a low-cost, essential input that exponentially increases the shelf life, flavor, and global marketability of produced foods. While it creates a multiplier effect within supply chains, providing massive profit margins to agri-industrial monopolies, the biological and social costs generated by this process are directly dumped onto the backs of the working class and the poor.

2. Critical Sectors Targeted by the Sugar-Focused Micro-Struggle

A "micro-struggle" directed against sugar consumption, which manifests through administrative regulations, municipal restrictions, school meal interventions, and localized consumer boycotts, aims to influence the system as a whole by focusing on seemingly small local changes rather than waiting for massive waves of large-scale mass movements. This form of micro-struggle directly shakes the following critical sectors of the capitalist economy:

Agri-Industrial Sugar Monopolies and Refining Consortia: Large-scale sugar cane and beet producers, along with multinational refining giants, are dependent on high-volume consumption. Micro-interventions that restrict the sale of sugary drinks in public spaces or introduce strict punitive taxes directly erode the sales volume and market value of these capital-intensive actors.

Ultra-Processed Food and Beverage (UPF) Sector: Transnational food giants like Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola are inextricably linked to formulations based on cheap calories and added sugars. Localized administrative restrictions force these giants to restructure their product portfolios, threatening the market dominance of high-profit, low-nutritional-value commodities.

Global Packaging and Preservation Technology Industries: Unlike sugar-free or natural foods, the industrial marketability of sugar requires advanced packaging technologies. Single-use plastic packaging, aseptic containers, and chemical preservatives allow sugary commodities to circulate globally without spoiling. A micro-struggle targeting sugary products also fundamentally disrupts the demand for these auxiliary packaging technologies at the heart of corporate food monopolies' expansion.

3. The Big Pharma Connection: Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity Rents, and Systemic Fragility

One of the most jarring structural ironies of the neoliberal food regime is the symbiotic relationship between the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry—a structure often conceptualized in the literature as the "UPF-Big Pharma feedback loop," which builds crisis upon crisis.

Production of Metabolic Rents: The food regime manufactures chronic metabolic diseases by flooding the market with cheap, refined sugar-laden calories that disproportionately target low-income and poor segments who cannot access fresh and healthy food due to spatial and economic inequalities. Type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and cardiovascular ailments are the direct products of this systematic nutritional deprivation.

Commodification of Pathologies: These chronic health crises are converted into an inexhaustible stream of profit and revenue for Big Pharma. Pharmaceutical giants obtain massive monopoly rents through maintenance drugs that create a necessity for lifelong use (insulins, statins, metformin) and the recent high-cost anti-obesity drugs (GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide).

4. Big Pharma's Vulnerability to Micro-Struggle

Although Big Pharma may appear to be in an ostensibly untouchable and profitable position in the face of rising chronic disease rates, a successful micro-struggle targeting sugar consumption fundamentally threatens the core basis of this business model:

Intervention at the Etiological Source: Pharmaceutical capital thrives on managing symptoms for a lifetime rather than eliminating the structural causes of the crisis. A micro-struggle shifts the political paradigm from a pharmaceutical mitigation strategy to primary public health protection. With the reduction of refined sugar intake at the societal level, the incidence rate of metabolic syndrome decreases; this directly narrows the future patient pool upon which the pharmaceutical sector's growth projections are based.

Regaining Public Sovereignty Over Health: Just as the food regime dumps health burdens onto the backs of individuals, Big Pharma individualizes chronic disease management, condemning patients to pharmaceutical dependency. A public health model inspired by Turkey's deep-rooted Hıfzıssıhha (Public Health) tradition, which prioritizes state-supported nutritional sovereignty and collective welfare, shatters the legitimacy of this profit-oriented medical-industrial complex.

In summary, the micro-struggle against sugar is not a simple dietary recommendation or an individual lifestyle choice; it is a genuine line of resistance built against the global pipeline that connects agri-industrial exploitation, the systematic undernourishment of the working class, and the rent-seeking mechanisms of the pharmaceutical sector.