Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The modern food system has become hyper-efficient at producing large quantities of cheap food. Food chains, from farmer to consumer, have become increasingly dominated by supermarket oligopolies in both developing and developed countries. The economic power these supermarkets have derived from globalisation and economies of scale has been relentlessly focussed both upwards and downwards along the food chain, as well as sideways towards agencies of national and local governance. Consumers may enjoy cheaper meals but the food system is neither healthy nor sustainable. Obesity is already high in many countries and rising in the developing world, and global food chains remain hostage to many environmental threats, ranging from depletion of non-renewable resources such as water and oil to issues of pollution and loss of biodiversity.
Utilising the framework of the Quadruple Bottom Line, and by gathering empirical evidence from a range of organisations - including governmental agencies, NGOs and charities, trade unions, retailers and retailing associations - Future Food Philosophies will identify where gaps in CSR initiatives exist and whether these lacunae could best be filled by 'soft law' (CSR) or 'hard law' (legislation).
Future Food Philosophies will initially provide an overview of the extent to which supermarkets have become the most powerful players in the global food chain, and to what degree their CSR rhetoric attempts to address social and environmental issues arising from their operations in the developing and developed world. It will then elucidate a set of ethical theories and philosophies of CSR and explore the relationship between CSR and legislation, between soft and hard law; examining questions such as 'why should supermarkets be socially-responsible?' The authors will then examine empirical evidence as to what CSR initiatives exist now, how effective are they, and what further CSR programmes or even regulatory innovations would be required for a sustainable food system.
Future Food Philosophies engages with a variety of disciplines, including, law, economics, management, marketing, retailing, politics, sociology, psychology, diet and nutrition, consumer behaviour, environmental studies and geography. It will be of interest to both practitioners and academics, including postgraduate students, social scientists and policy-makers.
Synopsis
Food is a source of nourishment, a cause for celebration, an inducement to temptation, a means of influence, and signifies good health and well-being. Together with other life enhancing goods such as clean water, unpolluted air, adequate shelter and suitable clothing, food is a basic good which is necessary for human flourishing. In recent times, however, various environmental and social challenges have emerged, which are having a profound effect on both the natural world and built environment - such as climate change, feeding a growing world population, nutritional poverty and obesity. Consequently, whilst the relationships between producers, supermarkets, regulators and the individual have never been more important, they are becoming increasingly complicated.
In the context of a variety of hard and soft law solutions, with a particular focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the authors explore the current relationship between all actors in the global food supply chain. Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Justice and the Global Food Supply Chain also provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary response to current calls for reform in relation to social and environmental justice, and proposes an alternative approach to current CSR initiatives. This comprises an innovative multi-agency proposal, with the aim of achieving a truly responsible and sustainable food retail system. Because only by engaging in the widest possible participatory exercise and reflecting on the urban locale in novel, material and cultural ways, is it possible to uncover new directions in understanding, framing and tackling the modern phenomena of, for instance, food deserts, obesity, nutritional poverty and social injustice. Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Justice and the Global Food Supply Chain engages with a variety of disciplines, including, law, economics, management, marketing, retailing, politics, sociology, psychology, diet and nutrition, consumer behaviour, environmental studies and geography. It will be of interest to both practitioners and academics, including postgraduate students, social scientists and policy-makers.