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Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?

Concentration of power among transnational ‘Big Food’ companies has contributed to food systems that are unsustainable, unhealthy and inequitable for people and planet. Given these commercial determinants of health, if ‘food systems transformation’ is to be authentic—more than a passing narrative—th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yates, Joe, Gillespie, Stuart, Savona, Natalie, Deeney, Megan, Kadiyala, Suneetha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8614044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34819325
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007350
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author Yates, Joe
Gillespie, Stuart
Savona, Natalie
Deeney, Megan
Kadiyala, Suneetha
author_facet Yates, Joe
Gillespie, Stuart
Savona, Natalie
Deeney, Megan
Kadiyala, Suneetha
author_sort Yates, Joe
collection PubMed
description Concentration of power among transnational ‘Big Food’ companies has contributed to food systems that are unsustainable, unhealthy and inequitable for people and planet. Given these commercial determinants of health, if ‘food systems transformation’ is to be authentic—more than a passing narrative—then leveraging Big Food is paramount. To this end, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers are increasingly encouraged to engage with these powerful entities. However, given the conflicts of interest at stake, engagement relies on trust and transparency, that all stakeholders take responsibility for their actions and demonstrate commitment to do no harm. Given Big Food’s track record in influencing policy, shifting costs and responsibility for their harms—and while profit primarily drives business decision making—we question whether it is logical to expect trust. This analysis explores concepts of responsibility and trust in relation to food systems transformation involving public-private partnerships. Through short cautionary case studies—looking at the United Nations Food Systems Summit, and Big Food’s plastic burden—it argues that unless such companies take responsibility for their cross-cutting effects and earn authentic trust through demonstrably doing no harm, their participation in evidence generation and policy processes should be limited to responding to information requests and adhering to regulation. Any involvement in research agenda-setting or formulating policy solutions introduces conflicts of interest, legitimises corporate irresponsibility and jeopardises scientific integrity. Big Food has dynamism and power to address food system problems, but while it contributes to so many of these problems it should follow—not formulate—transformational evidence, policies and regulations.
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spelling pubmed-86140442021-12-10 Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage? Yates, Joe Gillespie, Stuart Savona, Natalie Deeney, Megan Kadiyala, Suneetha BMJ Glob Health Analysis Concentration of power among transnational ‘Big Food’ companies has contributed to food systems that are unsustainable, unhealthy and inequitable for people and planet. Given these commercial determinants of health, if ‘food systems transformation’ is to be authentic—more than a passing narrative—then leveraging Big Food is paramount. To this end, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers are increasingly encouraged to engage with these powerful entities. However, given the conflicts of interest at stake, engagement relies on trust and transparency, that all stakeholders take responsibility for their actions and demonstrate commitment to do no harm. Given Big Food’s track record in influencing policy, shifting costs and responsibility for their harms—and while profit primarily drives business decision making—we question whether it is logical to expect trust. This analysis explores concepts of responsibility and trust in relation to food systems transformation involving public-private partnerships. Through short cautionary case studies—looking at the United Nations Food Systems Summit, and Big Food’s plastic burden—it argues that unless such companies take responsibility for their cross-cutting effects and earn authentic trust through demonstrably doing no harm, their participation in evidence generation and policy processes should be limited to responding to information requests and adhering to regulation. Any involvement in research agenda-setting or formulating policy solutions introduces conflicts of interest, legitimises corporate irresponsibility and jeopardises scientific integrity. Big Food has dynamism and power to address food system problems, but while it contributes to so many of these problems it should follow—not formulate—transformational evidence, policies and regulations. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8614044/ /pubmed/34819325 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007350 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Analysis
Yates, Joe
Gillespie, Stuart
Savona, Natalie
Deeney, Megan
Kadiyala, Suneetha
Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title_full Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title_fullStr Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title_full_unstemmed Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title_short Trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. Engaging with Big Food: marriage or mirage?
title_sort trust and responsibility in food systems transformation. engaging with big food: marriage or mirage?
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8614044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34819325
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007350
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