Trust, but Verify; Comment on “‘Part of the Solution’: Food Corporation Strategies for Regulatory Capture and Legitimacy”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Abstract

According to Lacy-Nichols and Williams, the food industry is increasingly forestalling regulation with incremental concessions and co-option of policy-making discourses and processes; bolstering their legitimacy via partnerships with credible stakeholders; and disarming critics by amending their product portfolios whilst maintaining high sales volumes and profits. Their assessment raises a number of fundamental philosophical questions that we must address in order to form an appropriate public health response: is it appropriate to treat every act of corporate citizenship with cynicism? If voluntary action leads to better health outcomes, does it matter whether profits are preserved? How should we balance any short-term benefits from industry-led reforms against the longer-term risk stemming from corporate capture of policy-making networks? I argue for a nuanced approach, focused on carefully defined health outcomes; allowing corporations the benefit of the doubt, but implementing robust binding measures the moment voluntary actions fail to meet independently set objectives.

Keywords

  • epublished Author Accepted Version: February 7, 2022
  • epublished Final Version: February 26, 2022

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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 11, Issue 11
November 2022
Pages 2727-2731

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History

  • Receive Date: 14 December 2021
  • Revise Date: 03 February 2022
  • Accept Date: 06 February 2022
  • First Publish Date: 07 February 2022

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