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Who’s Tipping The Scales : IPES Report

News: The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) has published a paper titled “Who’s tipping the scales” that discusses how corporate domination of global food governance is becoming more obvious and raises concerns about bluewashing.

Report highlights include:

Firms have become more prevalent in governance and other areas, stakeing claims to being respectable actors.

Corporations have been successful in persuading governments over the past few decades that they should be at the forefront of any conversation about the future of food systems.

Public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder roundtables have normalised the participation of private firms in food governance and decision-making, while public governance programmes have grown significantly more reliant on private money.

The UN Food Systems Summit in 2021 was hailed as a turning point in recognising the significance of corporate involvement in the management of public health.

The rising corporate participation in food governance has raised concerns from civil society organisations, academics studying food, and social movements that it may harm the public good and affect individuals’ and communities’ rights.

In both overt and covert ways, corporations have influenced global food governance.

Platforms for global food systems including the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Food and Land Use Coalition, and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement all exhibit corporate involvement.

The Covid-19 outbreak made the issue of corporate participation worse, as did Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and food inflation.

(Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research)