No food sovereignty if food distribution is in corporate hands

The UN report on the state of food security and nutrition says that over 700 million people went hunger in 2024. That's one out of every eleven people on the planet. The UN says billions more were unable to access adequate food, and the number has not gone down since the Covid pandemic. All indications show that this is a problem of food prices and access, and not a food shortage at the global level.

At the same time, large farmers’ protests broke out in at least 65 countries in 2024. Farmers across the world were suffering from high costs of production and low prices for their produce.

Both food producers and consumers are suffering in a context of record-high global food prices. But, for the corporations that control the distribution of food from farmers to consumers, this has been a time of windfall profits. A combination of monopoly power and unregulated activity in financial markets allows agricultural commodity traders, big agribusinesses, food companies and supermarket chains to make huge profits when food prices spike.

Food sovereignty is clearly not only about food production-- about who produces food and how food is produced. It requires access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, and so, we cannot talk about food sovereignty without talking about food distribution-- about who distributes food and how is it distributed.

The big culprit when it comes to today's high food prices for consumers and low prices for farmers is corporate power. Urgent actions are needed to dismantle corporate power and shift to more localised food systems, based on diversified food production, catered to people's food needs. And this requires building and strengthening connections between small food producers and street and market vendors.

As mentioned in the last edition, we are broadening the geographic scope of this quarterly bulletin, and opening it up to a three-way collaboration between GRAIN, FIAN and StreetNet International. FIAN International has been working for almost four decades alongside grassroots communities and movements, supporting their struggles against violations of the right to adequate food and nutrition across the globe and advocating for policies that promote fair, healthy and sustainable practices and conditions for everyone involved in the food system. StreetNet is a global alliance of street and market vendors and hawkers. It is composed of trade unions, associations and cooperatives.

As a global alliance of low-income informal economy workers with more than 900,000 street and market vendors and hawkers worldwide, StreetNet knows how important it is to have access to affordable food. In most of the world, street and market vendors are the ones supplying communities with nutritious local vegetables and fruits as well as cooked meals at low prices and liaising with small farmers to distribute their produce.

For hundreds if not thousands of years, street and market vendors have been part of the urban landscape as essential workers and integral parts of city life, as well as connecting rural and urban communities.

However, their key role in food distribution is often overlooked and they are increasingly expelled by governments and developers who see them as nuisances and threats to public order and safety. Traditional and farmers' markets are often bulldozed to build franchise supermarkets instead.

These exclusionary practices not only threaten the livelihoods of street and market vendors, who sustain entire families with their work, but also result in a lack of access to affordable quality food for communities. Furthermore, street and market trading are generally greater sources of employment for women than for men. From selling fruits and vegetables to selling prepared meals, these women provide a source of income to their households. The struggle for decent working conditions for street and market vendors cannot, therefore, be dissociated from the worldwide movement for food sovereignty. This is part of the actions needed to reign in the power of those actors who are amplifying food price volatility and of actions to increase and build public controls over food prices and programmes that ensure a fair, equitable and secure distribution of nutritious foods to everyone.

According to StreetNet's last global report, food and drinks are among the top goods sold by StreetNet members. It is not surprising: wandering around any market in the world, both in urban and rural areas, vendors can be seen selling fresh fruits and vegetables, meat or fish, fresh drinks and juices, or delicious cooked meals. Street vendors and people working in the so called “informal food sector” (including also fishers, farmers and farm workers) are an essential pillar of the food system of many countries.

One of the main problems impacting street and market vendors worldwide is the perception (narrated in the mainstream media) that they are a threat to public health. As a consequence, they are targets of official harassment campaigns as well as unofficial harassment practices by police officers or other authorities. If we look specifically at food vendors we can see that the narrative often centers on the lack of safety and health standards for the produce they sell. Even in some academic papers vending stalls are described as a safety hazard.

There are, however, community based approaches to food safety that can counter these perceptions and that involve vendors as active and integral parts of the process. One notable example comes from Kenya.

“Recently, we initiated work with food vendors in markets and informal settlements to strengthen their practices and knowledge” recounts Anthony Kwache, leader of KENASVIT and member of the International Council of StreetNet. “Toward the end of October and into early November, I facilitated a capacity-building session on legal frameworks related to food and vending in the Mukuru Market, supported by a partner organisation. This training covered critical areas such as food safety and supply chain management in informal settlements. As a result, food vendors are now more aware of the laws and regulations concerning food handling, storage, and safety.”

One important aspect for KENASVIT is the peer learning experience “We organized an exchange visit between vendors from Mukuru and Muthurwa Market, fostering peer learning. I believe that when vendors are educated about legal frameworks and food safety, they are better equipped to address issues like proper storage and maintaining a clean environment—factors that are essential for ensuring food safety”.

The involvement of workers in the process of food governance is considered an essential element in achieving sustainability of supply chain and food sovereignty. Only in this way can we make sure that practices and concepts developed at the international level are not applied in extractive and discriminatory ways, and are useful to improve the quality of life and working conditions of the very people who produce and distribute the food.

A boom in online ordering is causing demand for food delivery to skyrocket in cities across Asia. As a result, huge numbers of people are being employed as delivery riders under gig economy conditions.

Men have long dominated this high-intensity, physically demanding industry. But, with high demand for workers, a growing number of women are being employed in food delivery too. The motivations among female food delivery riders are complex. Many of them come from rural areas in search of a flexi-hour job that can accommodate mothering duties. Others may have owned or worked in small shops that closed due to online competition, and have turned to food delivery as one of the few alternative sources of income. Indeed, the street cultural food landscape in Asia is being rapidly replaced by massive numbers of delivery platform motorbikes waiting on busy streets and traversing the roads, whether in sunshine or rain.

Last year, Grab, a Singaporean multinational tech company, launched a recruitment campaign in Thailand targeting women drivers. The initiative is rolling out across Southeast Asia, covering Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Since 2020, the number of women Grab drivers in Thailand has increased by over 45%. Yet, while the companies whose apps send them out each day have become richer, the high number of riders makes the job more competitive, hard and precaious for women. Gender stereotypes also prevail in the delivery industry. Women food delivery workers in Thailand and elsewhere face lower wages, harassment, inadequate toilet access, and difficulty in taking leave for women's health issues.

Based on the algorithm, delivery platforms typically offer bonuses if riders accomplish a certain number of deliveries. This working model often poses challenges to full-time women riders who must contribute to their team’s performance targets. Women food couriers are often labelled as having “poor driving skills” and a “weak sense of direction”, thus raising the chance of encountering hostility from their male counterparts. The pressure to perform in accordance with algorithmic requirements also imposes road safety risks on riders searching for shortcuts or speed to complete as many orders as possible.

Most food delivery riders are employed as open-contract independent contractors, so they normally do not receive basic benefits or legal protections and lack bargaining power. With the excessive workforce existing in the food delivery sector, technology can exacerbate these problems, which makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and precarious work arrangements. China now employs 12 million delivery workers. In this context of intense competition, women riders often work more than 10 hours each day, leaving them with no choice but to rely on their relatives to take care of their children.

Women leaders of gig workers groups in Thailand are fighting back against this discrimination and taking action to improve working conditions for women. Women workers from the deliver platforms Fast Moving, Rider Centre, and Thonburi Rider Group are actively campaigning for fair wages and better working conditions for all gig workers, and to be regarded as equals to their male counterparts. On a day-to-day basis, women riders also find ways to build collective support for one another, for example, by activating and using their existing social networks to break out of isolation and to share experiences and knowledge about their work.

The overwhelming reality is that food delivery thrives as a result of the growing monopolisation and merger of the food industry and the gig economy. As a growing number of women delivery riders navigate the hostile gig economy patriarchy, they are increasinly banding together in Asia and other parts of the world to push for anti-discriminatory regulations and equitable engagement from gig platforms. These workers are taking courageous actions to push back against the power of tech corporations that have increasing control over our food systems, and they need to be seen as allies in the long struggle for food sovereignty.

The corporate capture of the global food system drives profound human rights violations, particularly the right to food and nutrition. The concentration of power within a few large conglomerates in the agricultural, food, and tech sector leads to increased control over critical resources such as land, water, seeds, fertilisers, and farming equipment. These corporate entities prioritise profit over human welfare, often at the expense of marginalised communities, workers, and the environment. By monopolising increasingly vertical supply chains and exerting massive influence over policy decisions, they undermine democratic processes and deepen existing inequalities, obstructing access to nutritious and affordable food for all.

For corporations to continue to expand, they have to retain more control within food systems. One way they do this, is through corporate-backed food charity, often perpetuated through the North American food banking model. These networks, while vital during crises, have evolved into permanent fixtures of the global food supply chain. Though they provide short-term relief, they often rely on volunteer labour and charitable donations, making them vulnerable to disruptions.

Governments and food corporations have co-opted food banks to address the contradictions of food overproduction (food waste) and underconsumption (hunger) within a capitalist framework. However, this approach does little to address the root causes of hunger and food insecurity, such as poverty, labour exploitation, and corporate greed. By focusing on redistribution of food waste rather than systemic reform of the corporate food system, food banks perpetuate a flawed narrative that charity is the solution to hunger. Corporate-backed food charity has essentially created a “market” for waste, turning surplus food into a commodity to be redistributed, rather than tackling why such a surplus exists in the first place.

The human rights implications of this situation are significant. Rather than implementing policies that regulate corporate control and ensure equitable access to food, governments have increasingly defunded public support programs, allowing corporate-backed food banks to take on a greater role. This not only serves corporate greenwashing and promotion of their products, but also normalises food waste and institutionalises food insecurity, making the system even more dependent on temporary charity instead of addressing long-term solutions. By doing so, corporate interests continue to evade accountability, perpetuating a cycle of inequity that violates the fundamental human right to food and nutrition.

In Colombia, the expansion of corporate-backed food charity, influenced by models from the Global North, has worsened food insecurity by diverting attention from structural causes. Land grabbing by industries like sugar cane, monocultures that prioritise exports, and rural abandonment all contribute to diminished food production. Food banks, introduced in Colombia in1999, distribute primarily ultra-processed “food” products, raising serious concerns about public health. This model relies heavily on corporate donations, further reinforcing dependency on powerful actors rather than addressing the root causes of hunger, such as poverty and land inequality.

A recent bill in Colombia (Bill 383) offers tax breaks to companies that donate to food banks, leading to fiscal losses that could otherwise fund social protection programs (estimates are at 14-17 trillion Colombian pesos annually- approximately 3.38 to 4.11 billion US$). This approach deepens reliance on corporate donors while failing to support sustainable local food systems. To achieve food sovereignty, Colombia must prioritise strengthening rural communities, supporting local food production, and implementing social policies that address the underlying drivers of hunger, empowering people to build long-term, equitable food systems.

Read the full FIAN report here: https://fiancolombia.org/bancos-de-alimentos/

For more information on the impact of ultra-processed food donations in Latin America, see also: https://ojo-publico.com/5440/two-faces-philanthropy-cost-donations-ultraprocessed