Political economy models of agricultural and food policy often consider
“producers”, “consumers”, and “taxpayers” as the main agents to study
the impacts of policies, the political incentives, and the impact on policy
outcomes. One (theoretical) reason is its didactic use, that is, to avoid
unnecessary complications in deriving policy effects and identify equilibria.
Another (empirical) reason is the absence of disaggregated information of
policy impacts on various agents within (or outside) the value chain.
It is, of course, well known that in reality many more agents are
affected—and also play a role in lobbying governments to introduce or
remove certain policies. In agricultural and food policies “other agents”
include input suppliers (such as landowners, seed and agro-chemical companies,
or banks), traders, food processors, retail companies, environmental
and food advocacy groups, and so on. These agents may be differently
affected by policies, depending on the nature of the policy (e.g. whether
the policy is targeted to the (raw) agricultural commodity or to a processed
commodity)—or whether farm subsidies affect land or other production
factors. As a consequence, these different agents have sometimes
joined forces (“political coalitions”) with farmers or with final consumers
to influence policy-makers in setting public policies. In other cases they
have opposed each other on policy issues.