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Welcome to WikiCorporates A Guide to Companies, their Owners, and the Politics behind them. We have 2,821 articles A Guide to Companies, their Owners, and the Politics behind them. How much do we really know about the brands we buy in the supermarkets? Are we aware that the jar of Patak’s curry sauce, the packet of Jordan’s cereal, the Maille Dijon mustard and the box of Silver Spoon Sugar in our shopping basket are all owned by one company: Associated British Foods plc? Do we know that many of the fashion and cosmetic brands we’ve grown up with and take for granted — Clairol, Max Factor, Rimmel, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Lacoste — belong to one conglomerate, JAB Holding Company Sarl, owned by one family? Would you be surprised to find out that this same company also owns numerous other leisure brands we see every day: Coffee (LavAzza, Van Houtte, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Green Mountain), snacks (Pret a Manger, Krispy Kreme), drinks (7UP, Snapple, Schweppes) and many others? This website aims to show who really owns the products and services we use every day, and where their profits and taxes really end up. It also reveals the intimate, sometimes incestuous relationships between these companies and the politicians whose decisions shape our lives and society. Our aim is to be the go-to site for citizens, the media, or anyone who wants to shine a spotlight on the way that corporations and governments work together for their mutual benefit.

Monopoly is the DNA of capitalism. Since Thatcher and Reagan let neoliberalism loose, and the rest of the world followed suit, we have seen market sectors become ever more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Wherever you look, giant corporations with country-sized revenues are dictating to govts worldwide. Getting regulation passed in the face of their lobbying power is a non-trivial task: one example we are living with is plastic pollution. Another is neonicotinoids; it took nearly 80% of our pollinators to die off before legislators reluctantly began to act.

What is lawful, and what is right... they're not always the same thing.

Corruption is commonplace; we are no longer shocked, or even surprised. Criminal bankers go scot-free; politicians abuse their positions to enrich themselves and their cronies, and direct their efforts to maintain the status quo, at the expense of the rest of us. Inequality is now at a level not seen for 100 years. Corporations and businessmen routinely avoid paying taxes, which shunts the burden onto citizens.

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Sources: The Era of Corporate Consolidation and the End of Competition. Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-DuPont, and ChemChina-Syngenta Elsadig Elsheikh, Hossein Ayazi,, Haas Institute, Oct.2018. ♦ Fightback against the billionaires: the radicals taking on the global elite. Anand Giridharadas, The Guardian, Feb.07.2019. ♦ Worlds End. Corporate Watch, Feb.06.2019. ♦ The class pay gap: why it pays to be privileged. Within Britain’s elite occupations, the advantages of class are still mistaken for talent. Sam Friedman, Daniel Laurison, The Guardian, Feb.07.2019.

Planning on having a Family?

Sperm counts have more than halved in the past 40 years, and are falling by around 1.4% a year, with Western countries seeing a 60% decline. History is full of lessons about the links between environmental degradation and the collapse of civilisations – the decline of the Roman Empire is linked with its increasing use of lead pipes. A technology that benefited millions also brought damage to the brain and nervous system, the stomach and the kidneys, as well as diseases such as high blood pressure. Sound familiar?

The billionaires who profit from pollution use their wealth to protect themselves from its consequences - they don't plan to inhale or ingest those toxins. Pollution can be outsourced far from their homes; they can live in New Zealand and pollute in Mexico, they can live in Hawaii and pollute in Indonesia. Politicians collude, either because they are corrupt ($$s), or because they are powerless as a consequence of govt policies over the last ~40 years.

Infertility: A wide variety of industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and the chemicals used to make them routinely find their way into our water. Agricultural pesticides and herbicides are washed into streams, rivers and lakes. The effects of these chemicals on all life are very serious: eg., if fish can't breed, then - no more fish.

Deformed Sperm: high levels of air pollution result in a lower number of poor quality, poorly-shaped sperm. It also has an impact on babies in the womb, leading to low birth weight and millions of premature deaths. In particular, air pollution known as PM2.5 is to blame; not only is it just as harmful to your lungs and heart as smoking, but it also affects male fertility.

Climate Change is bringing higher temperatures - which results in poor sperm production for up to two weeks after exposure.
Relying on IVF to solve the fertility problem won't help, because air pollution - particularly NO2 from car exhausts - means lower odds of success.

Miscarriages and many other fertility problems are being increasingly seen. Exposure to air pollutants are associated with low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, neonatal death, and decreased fertility in males. Even a brief exposure to high levels of air pollution can result in a 2.6 fold increase in the risk of miscarriage.,

Birth Defects: Thousands of chemicals found in everyday items have never been tested to determine their effects on health and, of the few that have, only a tiny minority have been assessed for reproductive health effects. Birth defects are on the rise; eg. hypospadias, a condition in which the male urethra does not develop properly, have doubled since the 1970s. Learning disabilities have doubled since the 1970s; autism has increased ten-fold since the early 1990s.

Higher-income people can shop their way out of some of the health problems by purchasing all-natural products - but that's a luxury which lower-income families cannot afford.

DNA Damage and Your Child's Ability to Reproduce Endocrine-disrupting chemicals affect hormone-producing glands, such as the thyroid or pituitary, which in turn affect reproductive health. Phthalates, found in most products, change how reproductive organs develop in the womb, with knock-on reproductive effects across generations. Toxicants can exert negative reproductive effects through several mechanisms; some chemicals kill or damage cells. If these cells are oocytes or sperm cells, exposure can result in infertility. If they are other types of cells, developmental problems can occur. Other chemicals alter the structure of DNA, causing gene mutations. Depending on the genes affected, mutations can result in an inability to conceive or in birth defects in your offspring.