TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
26 April 2023
Third World Network

IPES-FOOD (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems)
Press release
For immediate release: Tuesday 25 April 2023

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HUNGER AND FOOD SECURITY SET TO WORSEN UNLESS CORPORATE INFLUENCE CONFRONTED – EXPERTS

Corporations are increasingly shaping UN decisions on food systems, hampering efforts to confront growing food insecurity, hunger and climate change – says new report.

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Read the IPES-Food report, ‘Who’s Tipping The Scales?’ at: http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/tippingthescales.pdf

Expert authors available for interview:

• Lim Li Ching, co-chair of IPES-Food, Senior Researcher at Third World Network
• Molly Anderson, IPES-Food expert and Chair in Food Studies at Middlebury College

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25 APRIL 2023, BRUSSELS – Leading food systems experts are today warning efforts to tackle growing food insecurity, hunger and climate change are being hampered by deepening influence of giant agri-food corporations over decision-making at international, UN and national levels – while communities most affected by these decisions are excluded from participation.

The new briefing note from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), launched as part of this week’s 4th Global Conference of the UN’s One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme in Hanoi, finds that, from healthy diet initiatives to high-level advisory bodies and even the conception of UN summits – signs of corporate influence in food systems are now pervasive. It proposes solutions for the UN to reprioritize the voices of communities most in need.

‘Who’s Tipping the Scales?’ documents a history of growing corporate influence over our food, and exposes how:

• Giant food and agriculture corporations have convinced governments and UN institutions they are indispensable solution-providers to the world’s food challenges.
• As transnational food and farming companies grow ever bigger, they are embedding themselves in decision-making processes in increasingly innovative ways – funding key global food governance institutions, establishing coalitions and public private partnerships with governments and UN institutions, and even devising UN summits (like the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit).
• Decision-making is weak on initiatives that hold firms to account for practices that cause harm to people and the planet.
• Renewed efforts are underway to rein in corporate influence and hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses, but these actions are incomplete, insufficient, and being stifled by powerful governments and corporations.

IPES-Food experts recommend: 

• Addressing the influence of corporations at all levels of decision-making – including through a UN-wide Corporate Accountability Framework and robust conflict of interest policies, taking inspiration from World Health Organization frameworks on tobacco control.
• Creating new autonomous governance spaces to allow people and affected communities to engage with decision-making on food on their own terms.

Sofía Monsalve Suarez, IPES-Food expert and secretary general of FIAN International said: 
“Corporations have long influenced decisions around food, but we have observed that in recent years this influence has increased and deepened. Giant food and farming corporations have managed to convince governments and the UN that they must be central in any decisions on the future of our food. We need to stop thinking that transnational corporations are essential to feed the world – they are not.” 

Molly Anderson, IPES-Food expert and food studies chair at Middlebury College said: 
“It’s insidious – corporate control over our food has become the norm. From academic curricula to healthy diet initiatives, from UN summits to scientific research – the signs of corporate influence over food systems are everywhere. But we cannot respond adequately to the ongoing food price crisis, climate change or worsening hunger without confronting these powerful vested interests.”

Lim Li Ching, co-chair of IPES-Food and senior researcher at Third World Network said: 
“Communities need a stronger voice in the way our food system runs. We must adjust the unjust decision-making structures around food to shift the balance of power from corporations to communities. We need better ways to hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses, tougher limits on corporate lobbying and conflicts of interest, and new democratic spaces that prioritize the voices and needs of communities most in need.” 

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Contact: 

Robbie Blake | Communications manager, IPES-Food | robbie.blake@ipes-food.org | +32 491 290096 [EN, FR]