What constitutes responsible investment in the food sector?
The principles – available online here – encompass all parts of the food supply chain, from workers’ rights in primary food production, through to sustainability in processing, marketing, retail, and reduction of food waste. The first principle refers to “the right to adequate food” and underpins the document’s overall message, saying, “Responsible investment is a significant contribution to enhancing sustainable livelihoods.”
The principles are intended to aid decisions – by governments, as well as the private sector – that stimulate sustainable production of safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable food.
The guidelines are voluntary and non-binding, but the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says they “represent the first time that governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, UN agencies and development banks, foundations, research institutions and academia have been able to come together and agree on what constitutes responsible investment in agriculture and food systems”.
FAO director-general José Graziano da Silva acknowledged the role of food manufacturers in putting the principles into practice.
He said in a statement: “The private sector will play an important role in implementing the principles. FAO stands ready to assist governments and all stakeholders into transforming the principles into reality."
The FAO estimates that global food production will need to increase by 60% to feed 9bn people by 2050. This would take an average net investment of $83bn a year, it says.
The investment principles were negotiated over a two-year period and are intended to complement the existing Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, agreed in 2012.
