Source: Down
To Earth28th April 2023 (“Bluewashing: Report flags how corporates have wormed
their way into global food governance”)
Q. Why in News/Context -
· The
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) has released
a report titled “Who’s tipping the
scales”.
Q. Concerns raised by the report:
· It
highlighted how corporate capture of global food governance is increasingly
taking place in more visible ways.
· According
to the report, over recent decades, corporations have succeeded in convincing
governments that they must be central in any discussion on the future of food
systems, the document read.
· “Public-private
partnerships and ‘multi-stakeholder’ roundtables have normalised a prominent
role for corporations and given them an inside track to decision-making.
· Corporates
control the system “through lobbying behind the scenes, political and
institutional donations, market power, shaping trade and investment rules,
shaping research and innovation, as well as influencing other structural
aspects of global food systems.”
Q. Example of Corporate Involvement:
· The report
cited the example of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR), a global research partnership of international institutions
on food security.
· CGIAR has
increasingly relied on funding from private firms and private philanthropic
foundations with close ties to industry.
· The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation was the
second largest donor to the CGIAR system in 2020 at nearly $100 million,
dwarfing the amounts pledged by individual governments, including the United
States.
Q. What is Bluewashing?
· Bluewashing
refers to a deceptive form of marketing in which an enterprise uses deceptive
marketing techniques to overstate its commitment to responsible social
practices.
· It can be
used interchangeably with the term greenwashing but has a greater focus on economic and community
factors rather than the environment.
· The
term bluewashing was first used to refer to companies who signed
the United Nations Global Compact and its principles but did not make
any actual policy reforms.
Q. Solutions/recommendations mentioned
in the report:
· The experts
have recommended the creation of clear mechanisms for assessing, monitoring and
managing conflicts of interest in food system governance — going beyond
existing limited approaches and developing stricter rules on lobbying, spending
and campaign financing intended to influence government policy and elections.
