An aerial view of the city of Riverside centered around a highway interchange.
  • Publication
  • November 29, 2021
Margins in Movement
This report chronicles more than two years of research with the people of the Inland Empire — the two-county region of Southern California often seen as a periphery “at the margins” of Los Angeles. This research seeks to understand prevailing beliefs and narratives across different groups on ideas of community, economic opportunity, government, and more.
A young Black child wearing glasses smiles a big toothy grin while hanging on a playground bar.
  • Blog
  • October 26, 2021
Reimagining Revenue Measures by Centering Community Voices
Introduction California’s convoluted system for raising revenue is not transparent, and confusing to the general public. Unless they closely follow wonky budgeting and legislative news, most people typically don’t learn about upcoming revenue...
Woman holding grains of wheat
  • Blog
Blog: A solution to Africa's food insecurity
Any serious attempt to tackle many of Africa’s interlocking socio-political and economic challenges, such as food insecurity, must accept that Africa’s “problems” are global as much as they are local.
Pro-Minimum wage protesters in DC.
  • Podcast
Podcast: The economic case for a $15 minimum wage
In this episode of Who Belongs? we look at the impacts of minimum wage increases with Michael Reich, a Professor of Economics and Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley.
A sign reading texas covered in ice and Icicles
  • Blog
  • February 24, 2021
Blog: On Texas, the climate crisis, and a just transition to renewable energy
What’s behind the climate crisis in Texas is what’s behind the crisis more globally: corporate management fixated on extracting short-term profits, resistance to shifting to renewable energy, and disregard for communities.
A cartoon of a person holding an umbrella over corporate building while it rains over everyday people.
  • Blog
Blog: Trump's eleventh-hour blitz to preserve the racial order
As the country continues to make sense of the storming of the US Capitol last Wednesday, the Trump administration is engaged in another form of deluge—an ongoing torrent of last minute regressive rules to lock into place right-wing policy priorities before the president’s last day in office.
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  • Video
  • December 9, 2020
Video: The Surveillance State, Social Safety, and Building Power
While technology has made it easier to connect with faraway family and friends and gain access to the world’s libraries of information, it has also led to a stark loss of privacy through widespread data collection and surveillance by both government agencies and for-profit companies.
Shahidi project still
  • Blog
  • November 15, 2018
Blog: Corporate Control of Global Food Markets a Recipe for Disaster
WHAT DO PURINA DOG FOOD, CHEERIOS, DORITOS, AND AQUAFINA ALL HAVE IN COMMON? They’re all owned by Nestle. While Nestle is most famous for its chocolate and coffee, it actually owns over 2,000 product brands in various industries, from cosmetics (L...
Shahidi project still
  • Press Release
  • October 11, 2018
Haas Institute Probes Corporate Role in the Global Food Crisis
BERKELEY, CA: The Haas Institute at UC Berkeley Wednesday launched a new monitoring project that investigates and documents the power and influence of 10 mega corporations—which own hundreds of subsidiaries in the agriculture, food production, and...
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  • Publication
  • October 10, 2018
The Era of Corporate Consolidation and the End of Competition
Introduction IN THE PAST TWO YEARS ALONE, three major corporate mergers have begun to reshape what was an already concentrated international market for agricultural chemicals, seeds, and fertilizers. If the mergers gain approval from their relevant...
Samson Duborg Rankin
  • Publication
  • April 18, 2018
Corporate Democrats and the Corporate Power Structure in California Politics
After the 2016 presidential election, California has been a leader in progressive politics, pushing back against the agenda of Trump. However, a growing corporate-backed moderate faction of the Democrat Party in California has been able to stop policies that are seen as dangerous to corporate interests.
This image is the cover for the Trans Pacific Partnership: Corporations Before People and Democracy Report
  • Publication
  • May 9, 2016
Trans Pacific Partnership: Corporations Before People and Democracy
Our new report on the Trans-Pacific Partnership raises serious concerns about the plurilateral, mega-regional trade deal, with an analysis that the TPP puts the interests of corporations before the interests of people and core democratic principles...
US Farm Bill report cover
  • Publication
  • October 28, 2015
The US Farm Bill
In a report examining the US Farm Bill, the Haas Institute finds that corporate control and structural racialization within the US food system leaves marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by the agricultural policies and outcomes generated by the Farm Bill.
Nadia Barhoum speaking in a classroom
  • Blog
  • March 31, 2015
Blog: Lessons from the Food Justice Summit
On February 21, 2015, the Haas Institute participated in an all-day Food Justice Forum organized by Holy Names University in Oakland, California.
Picture of wheat farm at night
  • Blog
  • March 4, 2015
Bowman v. Monsanto: The monopoly over the global food system
On February 21, 2013, the Supreme Court heard legal arguments on Bowman v. Monsanto in what is sure to become a landmark patent and intellectual property case in the United States. The case involves the giant seed agrichemical company Monsanto vs. a...
Panelists speaking
  • Blog
  • January 12, 2015
Food is a human right not a commodity, experts say
East Bay chapter of the United Nations Association discusses challenges to eliminating hunger and opportunities to eliminate corporate control of agriculture
Cover of legal brief
  • Journal Article
Beyond Public/Private: Understanding Excessive Corporate Prerogative
In this article, john powell and Stephen Menendian explore the underpinnings of excessive corporate power, and the ways in which the private/public distinction has been used to mask and expand those prerogatives.