{"id":8970,"date":"2021-01-13T18:24:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T17:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/resources\/\/resources\/fairfood.nl\/resources\/?p=8970"},"modified":"2023-02-14T11:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T10:54:05","slug":"why-we-need-lawmakers-and-why-we-need-them-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fairfood.org\/en\/resources\/why-we-need-lawmakers-and-why-we-need-them-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we need lawmakers, and why we need them now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Why we need lawmakers, and why we need them now<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Time is not our friend. Although by now we pretty well know what we have to change to make this world a better place, we keep postponing true action and passing on the responsibility. Time for governments to step in: we need lawmakers, and we need them now.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although most of us are heavily dependent on our daily cup of coffee, growing it is getting harder without many of us understanding why. In 2019, the coffee price crisis confronted the world with the industry\u2019s vulnerability. An enormous surplus in Brazil, the global leader in production, led coffee farmers all over the world to break. Prices plummeted as consumption continued to rise, generating an unfair competition from which small farmers in low- and middle-income countries still struggle to cover the effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With few regulations in place, scientists point that another crisis is imminent. Climate change is affecting conditions in Southern countries in charge of producing, reducing the places that can sustain these crops, threatening whole families of coffee farmers. A recent study<\/a> estimates that by 2050, the amount of land that can sustain coffee will have fallen by 50 percent, and at the same time, demand is expected to increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paradox of regulation <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why are we talking coffee? Because it is just one example of a crop where we are failing to make a positive, much-needed change. Do we shift our focus to the agri-food sector as a whole, we can clearly see that inequalities are still intrinsic to our food today. In 2020, nearly 50 million people were victim of modern slavery<\/a>, and around 150 million children were working illegally<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly, best practice to tackle such problems often means staying ahead<\/em> of the regulatory curve. Leading CSR companies are those adopting a principled and harmonised approach towards issues such as living wage<\/strong>, privacy rights<\/strong>, cybersecurity<\/strong> and child labour<\/strong>, among many other basic rights ignored by regulation. Meanwhile, the absence of rules obligating businesses to address human rights risks within their supply chains, allows them to comply with the bare minimum. In the UK, for example, the Modern Slavery Act<\/a> requires companies to report on any steps taken to prevent forced labour in their supply chains, but it does not require companies to take any action when confronted with that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After adopting a similar approach through the Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence Law<\/a> in 2017, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation announced in 2020 it would join efforts with the EU Commission, that committed to introducing legislation for international corporate social responsibility at EU level, as part of Ursula von der Leyen’s (president of the EU Commission) plan of working towards “a Europe that takes the lead on the major challenges of our time”. The idea of having a continental approach to more sustainable supply chains and due diligence is promising, but the policy proposal can also be seen as a way of transferring the responsibility<\/a> of protecting human rights of countries’ own supply chains to Europe. Brussels, after all, has a lot on its plate, and aligning the different goals and interests from different European countries can take time. So far, two consultations<\/a> were made available by the Commission, and civil society can participate until February 8. we need lawmakers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While policy-makers and the average company refuse to make the commitment a priority, the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 widens the chasm for the commodity-producing developing countries. Heavily affected economically, they once again rely on alliances and partnering to recover. And, ironically, the pandemic served to remind us what good leadership looks like. Decision-makers were able to literally save lives when managing the crisis in a firm and human-centered way, while the lack of action guided only by economic values led to more inequalities. What is then missing for leaders to address the humanitarian crisis that is endemic to our food system? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ugly truth<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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