Summary:
In this report, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, examines how corporate power goes over food systems, outlining what is to be done to regulate it.
Description:
General Overview: corporate power and the right to food
Corporate power in food systems is highly concentrated, allowing a relatively small group of people to shape food systems. This way serves the ultimate goal of profit maximization instead of the public good. The Special Rapporteur, Michael Fakhri, examines how a relatively small number of corporations have amassed so much power over food systems. Moreover, it explores how an increasing concentration of corporate control undermines the universal right to food and the right to health. In this sense, the document outlines recommendations:
- to curtail corporate power;
- to ensure food markets are fair and stable; and
- to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations in food systems.
For this end, the report associates corporate dominance in trade, agriculture, and financial systems with:
- a decrease in food choices and
- an increase in food cost, ultra processed products, and environmental degradation.
Key Insights on Food Environments and Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention
For the purposes of FULL, the most relevant sections associate corporate practices to diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), environmental degradation, and inequality. The following are key points from the report:
- Raising prices (especially for inputs) and/or lowering wages are problematic means regarding corporate power. In this sense, the “power gives corporations control over inflation and employment, thereby limiting people’s power to determine how to live with dignity”. (Paragraph 10)
- The transnational corporations’ explotation of workers across the food system keeps their production costs low and increase returns for shareholders. (Paragraph 11)
- Farmers depends on expensive inputs provided by agrochemical companies. This is a demand originated from the industrial intensification design. Consequently, “the market concentration means that a small number of companies will unfairly control the price of seeds, which are the origins of life itself.” (Paragraph 13)
- “Corporations are also creating an increase in demand for ultra-processed products.” This happens through marketing that “disproportionately target racial and ethnic minorities and people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.” (Paragraph 16)
- Ultraprocessed products rely on the following characteristics, which result that “corporations are driving the homogenization of diets” (Paragraph 18):
- cheap and easily exchangeable ingredients,
- a long shelf life,
- cause addiction and overeating,
- pose a great risk of obesity and noncommunicable diseases, and
- can be sold at a much higher price than their production cost.
These practices deepen global inequities and consolidate power of a few transnational corporations over food production, distribution, and consumption, thereby eroding democratic control over food systems.
Recommendations: accountability and act in food systems
The Special Rapporteur calls on States to prioritize legal strategies such as:
- “Prioritize their focus on using corporate law to change the internal incentives within corporations to align with respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights.” (Paragraph 81 (a))
- “Use all legal tools available in commercial law to curtail corporate power, such as competition law, tax law and investment law.” (Paragraph 81 (b))
- “Use all legal tools available to hold corporations accountable, especially through national and international criminal law.” (Paragraph 81 (c))
- “Implement specific measures such as the following: (i) effective front-of-package labelling; (ii) restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy food; (iii) taxes on unhealthy food and beverages; (iv) removal of subsidies for unhealthy food and introduction of subsidies for healthy foods.” (Paragraph 81 (h)(i–iv))
- “Provide universal school meals along with public procurement policies that are committed to sourcing from local, small-scale producers and Indigenous Peoples.” (Paragraph 81 (h)(v))