Am i missing the joke? Whats sci-fi about this? And how many industries are like this? Meat, diary, cars, arms, power, oil, medical, prisons. And these are just the ones that come to read from stories I have read recently.
It is sci-fi in the sense that it involves speculation as to future interefence in various scientific endeavors on a industry-wide scale (i.e., soft sci-fi) by extending numerous historical examples of such practices. Also...it takes place in the future.
"sweeteners, fuels, and plastics" -- high fructose corn syrup, corn ethanol, corn ethanol-derived polyethylene
"price manipulation and straight forward mandate from their "Environmental" agency." -- corn ethanol subsidies, corn ethanol mandates
etc.