In its new report on supply chains, The Journey to Sustainable Food, a three-year update on the Behind the Brands campaign, Oxfam assesses that, while progress has been made, particularly on the issues of protecting land rights, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and tackling gender inequality, more needs to be achieved. While many commitments have been promised, the report says that: “companies must now ensure that their suppliers actually change their practices in line with the commitments made. And… companies must go further and adopt new business models in their supply chains to ensure that more of the power and the value reaches [sic] the farmers and workers who produce their ingredients.” The report also challenges the conventional wisdom that if more of the value that food companies’ products generate reaches the farmers and workers who produce them then less of that value will reach shareholders.
Oxfam launched its Behind the Brands campaign in February 2013 to score the “Big 10” food and beverage companies on their social and environmental policies and practices. The “Big 10” comprises Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever.
