1. Food industry influence in collaborative governance: The case of the Dutch prevention agreement on overweight.
- Author
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Lelieveldt, Herman
- Subjects
- *
HEALTH policy , *FOOD industry , *OBESITY - Abstract
• Scholars express concerns about undue influence of the food industry when drawing up voluntary agreements for public health. • I analyze food industry influence in negotiating the the 2018 Dutch prevention agreement on overweight. • Process tracing reveals a combination of front- and backstage lobbying aimed at weakening and blocking measures. • The study confirms the weakness of collaborative governance and recommends public regulation as a more effective alternative. Food policies to foster a healthy lifestyle are to an increasing extent developed through processes of collaborative governance in which public and private stakeholders negotiate voluntary agreements (VAs). The effectiveness of these VAs has been questioned repeatedly, because of the involvement of the food industry in drawing up these agreements. In this article I further develop insights into food industry influence in collaborative governance through an in-depth analysis of negotiations on the Dutch prevention agreement on overweight which was concluded in 2018. Using documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request I show how the food industry succeeded in shifting the regulatory arena towards a collaborative governance set up that allowed them to co-design and propose appropriate measures. Secondly, in this arena the industry managed to weaken and modify most of the measures for which it would be responsible. Finally, the industry used backstage lobbying outside of the official arena to block a plan to introduce a sugar levy. The case study confirms the weakness of voluntary agreements as an alternative to public regulation. This weakness results from the food industry's ability to capture collaborative governance processes and combine these with behind the scenes lobbying tactics. Policy-makers should therefore seriously reconsider the use of VAs for public health policies and governments should empower themselves to make a better use of public regulation both at national and EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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