THIRD WORLD NETWORK INFORMATION SERVICE ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Call to Transform Corporate Food Systems

The UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), scheduled for 23rd September 2021, was designed to address the current problems plaguing food systems. However, the Summit regrettably does not address the COVID-related food crisis, nor the structural causes of unsustainable, unhealthy, and unjust food systems. It has instead been accused of maintaining the status quo of the industrial, globalized, corporate-controlled food production and distribution model.

A policy briefing by FIAN International identifies why the UNFSS is problematic, and calls on governments to mitigate the worst possible outcomes and support a genuine transformation of corporate food systems in order to achieve healthy people and a healthy planet. The clearest instrument by which to do so is the human right to adequate food and nutrition, which entails state obligations and provides a prescriptive framework for food-systems transformation. The concept of food sovereignty is also key for food systems transformation.

Governments are therefore asked to:

1. Promote real transformation by strengthening local, resilient, agroecological food systems.
2. Put public interest first by recognizing food systems as matter of public interest and food as a commons. Public institutions and communal organizations must be strengthened, and corporate power dismantled, and corporations and financial capital must be regulated.
3. Put the holistic understanding of the right to adequate food and nutrition and food sovereignty at the heart of a real transformative food systems approach with special attention to women痴 rights.
4. Stop multistakeholderism. Clarify roles and implement robust safeguards against conflicts of interest. Establish clear regulations and accountability frameworks for holding private actors, including corporations, accountable for actions that undermine human rights.

With best wishes,

Third World Network

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THE UN FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT: OBSTRUCTING THE TRANSFORMATION OF CORPORATE FOOD SYSTEMS

Policy Brief
FIAN International
July 2021
https://www.fian.org/files/files/Policy_Brief-FINAL0.pdf

[EXCERPTS ONLY]

REQUESTS TO GOVERNMENTS: HOW TO ADVANCE A HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF FOOD SYSTEMS BASED ON THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD AND NUTRITION AND ON FOOD SOVEREIGNTY TO MAKE REAL TRANSFORMATION HAPPENING?

1.  PROMOTING REAL TRANSFORMATION: STRENGTHENING LOCAL, RESILIENT, AGROECOLOGICAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Localized food systems based on the recognition of the positive contributions of small-scale food producers and that food and agricultural workers are the ones that preserve and regenerate the environment, protect and increase biodiversity, strengthen sustainable smallholder food production and preserve traditional knowledge and allow for dialogue (or co-creation) of knowledge.

Support for agroecology, as understood as practice, knowledge and movement, are fundamental as it plays a major role in ensuring the resilience of local food systems and promoting food sovereignty. At the same time, trade, agricultural inputs, and relevant markets need to be regulated to ensure that they do not undermine the capacities and health of local food providers and local food systems more broadly.

2.  PUBLIC INTEREST FIRST! RECOGNIZE FOOD SYSTEMS AS MATTER OF PUBLIC INTEREST AND FOOD AS A COMMONS

A holistic food systems approach recognizes the complex interrelated dynamic of food systems with other sectors (health, agriculture, environment, politics, culture) and systems (such as ecosystems, economic systems, socio-cultural systems, energy systems, and health systems) and thus, that food systems combine and can serve multiple public objectives such as the protection and regeneration of nature, health and well-being, protection of labor and livelihoods, culture and knowledge, and social relations.

In this regard, food systems offer a critical entry point for public policies and investment, wherein public interest must be protected over private. This also means that the transformation of food systems requires coordination among different policy domains and must tackle structural drivers such as power imbalances and undemocratic governance. Food should be considered an essential resource that requires management as a social mandate to guarantee the right to adequate food for all ・as a commons. Therefore, public institutions and communal organizations must be strengthened, and corporate power dismantled, and corporations and financial capital must be regulated.

3.  PUT THE HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD AND NUTRITION (RTFN) AT THE HEART OF A REAL TRANSFORMATIVE FOOD SYSTEMS APPROACH

The holistic understanding of the RTFN goes beyond the food security perspective and entails the following key elements:

• Indivisibility of human rights as guiding principle
• Special attention to women痴 rights and gender equality
• Putting food sovereignty at the core of transformation, which asserts the rights of peoples, nations, and states to democratically define their own food, agriculture, livestock, and fisheries systems, and to develop policies guiding how food is produced, distributed, and consumed
• Holistic approach to nutrition beyond the mere consumption of food, understanding nutritional wellbeing as connected to the social dimensions of eating practices and to the health of the soil and the planet as a whole
• Recognition and implementation of extraterritorial state obligations, especially the obligation to regulate domestic corporations to comply with human rights abroad and cooperation among governments to ensure human rights are guaranteed

4.  STOP MULTISTAKEHOLDERISM! CLARIFICATION OF ROLES AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ROBUST SAFEGUARDS AGAINST CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

UN agencies must receive adequate funding so that they can function independently. They must be democratized, to ensure meaningful participation of rights holders. The human rights approach also entails clarifying roles within food systems: states need to adopt policy frameworks that clearly distinguish between and ensure appropriate roles for different actors in public policy making and program implementation (rights holders and duty bearers) and to ensure the meaningful participation of those most affected by hunger and malnutrition in public decision-making and program implementation.

They also need to adopt robust safeguards to protect against conflicts of interest resulting from inappropriate relationships with and influence of the corporate sector. States are to ensure transparency in their actions and put clear frameworks and mechanisms in place through which they can be held accountable by their people for decisions and actions they take in relation to food systems. At the same time, they should establish clear regulations and accountability frameworks for holding private actors, including corporations, accountable for actions that undermine human rights.