FoodDive has a new article tracking the campaign donations made by food and beverage conglomerates to different politicians and PACs. They particularly take a look at the differences between 2016 and 2020.
Overall, it's a pretty fascinating microcosm of the money that moves our political machines in America. While most companies are pretty bipartisan with their donations (it certainly makes sense for them to try and stay on everybody's good side):
donations to Democrats fell 30% to $828,300 while those collected by Republicans declined 52% to $876,700 compared to the 2016 election cycle.
You can view all the data, which comes from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets database, covering FEC filings from between 11/27/17 and 9/21/20. While it certainly doesn't cover the entire food/beverage industry, it does hit on most of the major corporations: Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Keurig Dr Pepper, Kraft Heinz, Molson Coors, Mondelez, PepsiCo, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods. (General Mills was excluded because they didn't have enough specific data for 2016 or 2020.)
Here's a good review of the results:
Where they stand: Political donations from 10 of the largest food and beverage makers [Christopher Doering / FoodDive]
Image: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
