On 12 June 2025, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in response to a call for public input regarding the ‘Concentration of Corporate Power in Food Systems and its Implications for the Realisation of the Right to Food’. The submission draws from SERI’s recently launched research report on food insecurity, which documents the lived experiences of some of SERI's partners affected by food insecurity and the remedies they seek.
The submission focuses on the following four questions posed in the call for comments.:
- How does the concentration of power in the hands of a relatively small number of corporations affect food sovereignty and the right to food in your country or region?
- What alternatives to corporate-controlled food systems are you promoting or supporting (e.g., agroecology, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture)?
- What barriers or threats do these alternative systems face from dominant corporate actors or state policies?
- What kind of legislation is needed in your country to limit the growing corporate concentration and power in food systems, and would allow for holding corporations accountable for human rights violations
Drawing from the literature review in our food insecurity report, SERI’s submission addresses the question of corporate power in the retail sector, the deregulation of the agricultural sector, and their effects on the realisation of the right to food. The submission explores alternatives to corporate-controlled food systems that can help alleviate food insecurity, such as land-based livelihood strategies and informal trade, and details the challenges these alternatives face. Lastly, the submission makes recommendations for legislative reform and enforcement that would strengthen the realisation of the right to food in South Africa including the following:
- Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- Enactment of Framework Legislation on the Right to Food
- Amendments to the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan (NFNSP)
- Enforcement of the National Minimum Wage
This SERI submission has been endorsed by:
- Professor Laura Pereira, Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
- Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ)
- Union Against Hunger (UAH)
Access the full submission here.