Corporate accountability and the right to food and nutrition in the context of health and the Sustainable Development Goals

Busiso Moyo, Safura Abdool Karim, Petronell Kruger and Helen Walls

Chapter 20 in The Elgar Companion to Health and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2025, pp 373-385 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In 2023 an estimated 735 million people faced hunger and malnutrition, with major implications for individual and public health. This chapter explores how the commercial determinants of health (CDOH), defined as the systems and practices through which commercial entities, like the financial and food industries, contribute to health and social disparities within and across countries. Distributional inequities in the global food system and resulting food insecurity are exacerbated by the consolidation of power by a small group of multinational food producers and financiers that prioritise profits, extensive processing, resource extraction, and reliance on technology. In contrast, sustainable food systems prioritise ecosystems and biodiversity, human rights, livelihoods and traditional knowledge. The authors argue for new legal instruments to govern the global food and nutrition system, balancing the power of corporate actors with involvement of civil society and national level governments especially from countries facing food insecurity and resulting health challenges.

Keywords: Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Sociology and Social Policy; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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