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REPORT
April 2023
Who’s Tipping the Scales?
The growing influence of corporations on the governance of food systems, and how to counter it
This page is automatically translated from the English original using DeepL and may contain errors.
Who decides what you eat? From academic curricula to healthy diet initiatives to high-level advisory bodies – signs of corporate influence in food systems are now pervasive.
In the third of our reports on food systems governance, IPES-Food documents a history of growing corporate influence over our food, and proposes transformative solutions to democratize governance to serve the public interest.
Corporations are unduly shaping the institutions, policies and norms that govern our food systems. As transnational food and farming companies grow ever bigger, their playbook is evolving and their ability to set the agenda is increasing. They have convinced governments they must be central in any discussion on the future of our food.
Responding to the ongoing food price crisis, worsening hunger, and the climate crisis, requires acting against powerful vested interests. Yet this entails decision-making that is free from corporate overreach and that serves the demands of communities most in need.
IPES-Food calls to shift the balance of power from corporations to communities:
- 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.
- Moving beyond ‘damage control’ by creating new autonomous governance spaces to allow people and affected communities to engage with decision-making on food on their own terms.
Sofia Monsalve, IPES-Food expert
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.
Sofia Monsalve, IPES-Food expert
Molly Anderson, IPES-Food expert
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.
Molly Anderson, IPES-Food expert
Lim Li Ching, co-chair of IPES-Food
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.
Lim Li Ching, co-chair of IPES-Food
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