New York University Students for Human Rights have prepared a report on Transnational Corporations on the Right to Food. The Report was requested by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food ‘to inform a multi-stakeholder consultation convening on June 19-20, 2009 in Berlin, Germany on the role of the agribusiness sector in the realization of the right to food.’ The Report concludes in the following way:
As has been illustrated by the various sections of this paper, TNCs acting at all levels of the global food supply chain have a powerful influence on the realization of the right to food. Much of this paper has covered the negative effects that corporate concentration and buyer and seller power have on small-hold farmers and farm workers and their rights to adequate food. This paper has also attempted to identify ways in which TNCs can begin to have powerful positive effects on the achievement of the right to food for those who supply and sustain them. With strong efforts by governments, consumers, workers, and most importantly TNCs themselves, those who feed the rest of the world can also feed their own families, and the world can move closer to the ICESCR’s twin goals of efficient food production and equitable food distribution.
Filed under: Corporations in International Law, human rights and business
You don’t find too many posts like this one, so thanks for sharing. I’m glad I stopped by!
While making sure food is distributed to everyone equitably is an admirable goal ( and one we should continue to strive for), I don’t think it will happen until we are also willing to share our money. But don’t tell big multi-national corporations that!