Industrial food systems: how can they be transformed to ensure respect for the right to food?

In his report submitted to the 58^th session of the Human Rights Council (24 February – 4 April 2025)¹, Mr. Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, suggested ways to transform the industrial food systems that have become harmful.

In his report, the Special Rapporteur highlights the effects of sovereign debt on fiscal policies and unequal economic systems that affect the ability of States to guarantee the right to food. It demonstrates how the current structure of international financing, coupled with the concentration of economic power in the hands of some multinational agri-food companies, impedes governments’ efforts to establish resilient, equitable, and sustainable food systems. He also criticized the World Bank’s “national budget reallocation” initiative, which aims to exclude any government-led initiatives (research, rural infrastructure) in this sector.

According to his analysis, despite food production that is largely sufficient to feed the world’s population, “1 in 11 people face hunger today, while one third of the global food production is lost or wasted” (§ 23). This is not due to a shortage of resources, but to economic and political choices that maintain an uneven distribution of wealth and impede equitable access to food. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that hunger is a violation of human rights and often results from inadequate policies that favour financial interests at the expense of the people.

The Special Rapporteur illustrates how, in times of economic crisis, governments must choose between fulfilling their financial obligations and ensuring access to food for their people.

In many cases, these trade-offs result in budget cuts in food subsidies, weakening social safety nets, and privatising farmland to generate additional revenue. But these policies heighten inequality and put vulnerable populations at increased risk of food insecurity.

The Special Rapporteur is denouncing the adverse effects of industrial agricultural systems based on the intensive exploitation of natural resources, the massive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and large-scale monoculture. While this model has increased production in the short term, it contributes to land degradation, deforestation, and the depletion of water resources. Moreover, it makes food systems vulnerable to climate change, making crops more vulnerable to droughts, floods, and natural disasters. In summary, he points out that: “industrial food systems have been designed and developed to generate profits at the expense of human and environmental health.” (§ 25)

As “a guide to how countries can develop national plans” (§ 8), the report contains a series of recommendations aimed at transforming industrial food systems and ensuring equitable and sustainable financing of the right to food: “(a) from industrial agriculture to agroecology; (b) from giving priority to global markets to supporting territorial markets; (c) from a reliance on corporations to more support for social and solidarity economy entities; (d) from a multilateralism based on a multi-stakeholderism to one based on solidarity and food sovereignty.”

To ensure that the right to food is respected, States must avoid, amongst other things, “large-scale expropriation of agricultural land for industrial development” and “ regulate the power of businesses and individuals so that these third parties do not violate or threaten the right to food.” (§ 89) They must also create conditions that enable everyone to produce food, by ensuring “access to land, water, seeds, and other resources, including access to credit, insurance, and technical knowledge.” (§ 89).