Have you done your steak-holder analysis?

Blog post DP4 of 4 for the subject Socio-Economic Development Perspectives

A stakeholder is any person or group with an interest or concern in a particular issue. A stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying those who are affected by a particular issue.

In my previous blogs (DP 1-3) I have provided three examples of unsustainable and unethical industry practices:

DP 1: The meat industries and factory farming: animal cruelty, environmental damage, food waste

DP 2: The chocolate industry and exploitation of raw materials from developing nations: child labor, inhibition of local community development

DP 3: The seafood industry and overfishing: species extinction, environmental damage and the depletion of a critical food resource for millions in developing nations

What I have tried to demonstrate through these examples is the relationship between our consumerism and the wider developmental consequences of something as intimate as our food. In other words, I have tried to show that through our everyday consumer decisions, we are not the only stakeholders in the decisions we make between us and the companies we buy our products from. Rather, ultimately we are stakeholders in the decisions between us and the welfare of others – the welfare of the animals that we use for our food, the welfare of the people who produce our food, the welfare of the people who don’t have enough food and the welfare of our environment and its capacity to sustain future generations. This said, the reality is that the majority of today’s consumers are disconnected and do not see the other stakeholders when walking down the supermarket isle – they only see the cheapest eggs and not the cost-cutting cruelty necessary to make them so cheap – they only see the different flavors of chocolate and not the different standards of economic and social fairness – and they only see the sushi at the end of their chopstick and not the species at the end of the line…

This disconnection between us and where our food comes from is by no means accidental. Societies that pursue economic efficiency and prosperity as the model for development, typically produce consumers who value more for less. And to meet this growing demand of more for less, industries have had to change the way they operate. But here’s the catch, if we knew what industries have typically done to create these economic efficiencies, we probably wouldn’t want to buy the product after all. As a result, companies commonly employ clever marketing strategies to try and hide the reality of their supply chain (i.e. ‘Farm Fresh Eggs’ that really come from a factory, not a farm), or companies simply just deflect corporate responsibility altogether (i.e. the chocolate industry in DP 2).

Industrialization and the impact it has had on sustainable development around the world is not unique to the food industries, for example, the clothing industry and exploitation of labor standards or the chemical industry and toxic pollution. However, given the intimacy and necessity of food, the decisions we make send a message of what type of food systems we want for our future. More importantly, what type of food systems we need in order to feed a growing population and provide food security for those already scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

The question then stands, how can we create food systems that provide enough for everyone, without compromising our environment and disregarding the welfare of other species that we share our planet with?

If we continue up the factory-farming industrial path, I believe we will fail in all aspects of development. Because a society that chooses to exploit and disregards the rights of animals in order to produce it’s food, will probably also continue to view others in its global community who are lower in the social food-chain with the same disdain and controlling mentality.

But what about government intervention, regulation and control? Surely, our governments protects us from buying products that are counterproductive to the goals of sustainable development? Unfortunately, the answer is no, not really – the power of industry and its lobbies combined with governments current focus not to hurt GDP in the name of economic development has left the consumer at the mercy of the market.

The good news is that we don’t need the government to change the way industries operate. Civil society has the potential to take back control of the marketplace, as exemplified in the below three cases:

How we can end factory farming

How we can end exploitation for our chocolate

How we can protect marine species from extinction

In conclusion, it is easy to feel powerless to influence the developmental challenges of our time. Poverty and hunger, child labor, species extinction….but the truth is, we have the power to create change through our consumerism by voting with our fork three times a day. Factory farming doesn’t abuse animals to produce cheap chicken because the law requires them to. They produce cheap chicken because consumers buy it. In this sense, both the problem and solution are in our hands…

At the same time, the reality is that the following conditions need to be present in order for change to occur; a) consumers need to be informed, educated and reconnected to where their food is coming from; b) consumers need to actually care enough about the developmental consequences of their decisions; c) and finally consumers need to be able to economically engage with the products that represent sustainable development – for people living in poverty and suffering from hunger, I imagine their concern is just where their next meal comes from and not how it was produced. To this effect, in the context of global food systems, consumer change will not be effective in isolation. Therefore, the ability for consumers to bring about sustainable global development will only be effective if we can at the same time bring about universal access to education and bring those at the bottom out of poverty. Everything is interconnected. This is my perspective on development.

Comments Off on Have you done your steak-holder analysis? / 14 Jan 2013 por Daniel Salter
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