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Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems

Food systems are central to our very planetary existence, yet they are not fit for purpose in the 21st century because of the enormous damage they do to the environment and human health. Transforming food systems to optimize human health, ecological health, social equity and economic prosperity will...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Swinburn, Boyd
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31652523
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102544
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author Swinburn, Boyd
author_facet Swinburn, Boyd
author_sort Swinburn, Boyd
collection PubMed
description Food systems are central to our very planetary existence, yet they are not fit for purpose in the 21st century because of the enormous damage they do to the environment and human health. Transforming food systems to optimize human health, ecological health, social equity and economic prosperity will require major changes in power dynamics between players to shift the status quo. The purpose of this paper is to assess these power dynamics and the opportunities for the Great Intergenerational Food Transformation (GIFT)—how this current generation in power can transform food systems within one generation for future generations. The current ‘policy inertia’ preventing food policy action is due to the strong opposition from the commercial food sector, the reluctance of governments to regulate and tax, and the lack of demand for policy action from civil society. The translation of the market power of large food industries into self-serving political power is the dominant barrier to action. The most promising systemic lever for holding the major power players (governments and food industries) to account for the GIFT is increasing the power of civil society (including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, professional societies and the public) to demand changes in the political economy of food.
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spelling pubmed-68353502019-11-25 Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems Swinburn, Boyd Nutrients Commentary Food systems are central to our very planetary existence, yet they are not fit for purpose in the 21st century because of the enormous damage they do to the environment and human health. Transforming food systems to optimize human health, ecological health, social equity and economic prosperity will require major changes in power dynamics between players to shift the status quo. The purpose of this paper is to assess these power dynamics and the opportunities for the Great Intergenerational Food Transformation (GIFT)—how this current generation in power can transform food systems within one generation for future generations. The current ‘policy inertia’ preventing food policy action is due to the strong opposition from the commercial food sector, the reluctance of governments to regulate and tax, and the lack of demand for policy action from civil society. The translation of the market power of large food industries into self-serving political power is the dominant barrier to action. The most promising systemic lever for holding the major power players (governments and food industries) to account for the GIFT is increasing the power of civil society (including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, professional societies and the public) to demand changes in the political economy of food. MDPI 2019-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6835350/ /pubmed/31652523 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102544 Text en © 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Commentary
Swinburn, Boyd
Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title_full Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title_fullStr Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title_full_unstemmed Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title_short Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems
title_sort power dynamics in 21st-century food systems
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31652523
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11102544
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