Beyond nutrition and physical activity: food industry and principles of scientific integrity

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

In a study published in Globalization and Health designed to assess how food industry actors seek to influence the principles of scientific integrity, Mialon and colleagues present a case study of the International Life Science Institute (ILSI) as a key actor in that space. The authors conclude that the activities developed by ILSI on scientific integrity principles are part of a broader set of industry political practices of industry actors to influence public health policy, research, and practice. They argue that it is important to counter these practices as they risk shaping scientific standards to suit the industry’s interests rather than public health ones.

Corporations, Politics, and Democracy: Corporate political activities as political corruption

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Corporate involvement in democratic processes typically takes the form of corporate political activity (CPA). In an article in Organizational Theory, Daniel Nyberg develops a framework of political corruption to explain the corroding influence of CPA on democratic processes. The articles explicates the corporate capture of democratic processes and assesses the role of corruption in Western liberal democracies. Finally, the author suggests ways to halt this process and thereby defend democracy as a system of governance from undue corporate interests.

Corporate versus public control of science and technology: Forging a framework for the 21st Century.

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, ” Louis Pasteur wrote in 1876. Today it would be more accurate to say that science belongs to the corporations and investors that have the money, power, and savvy to secure patents and bring new developments to global markets, a change that threatens human and planetary health. Nicholas Freudenberg writes  in STAT that the pandemic and the cascade of other global public health crises, including the climate emergency, increasing deaths of despair,  and the growing burdens of chronic diseases and mental health problems demand a new accounting of the costs of the corporate control of science and technology in the 21st century. 

And an upcoming event….  Nicholas Freudenberg discusses Modern capitalism and the future of health: assessing the costs and charting alternatives,  Tuesday April 20, 12:30- 1:30 pm ,  Australian Eastern Standard Time, Australia National University, register here

The Commercial Determinants of Three Contemporary National Crises: How Corporate Practices Intersect with the COVID-19 Pandemic, Economic Downturn, and Racial Inequity

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The United States finds itself in the middle of an unprecedented combination of crises: a global pandemic, economic crisis, and unprecedented civic responses to structural racism. While public sector responses to these crises have faced much justified criticism, the commercial determinants of these crises have not been sufficiently examined. In a commentary in The Milbank Quarterly, Maani et al. examine the nature of the contributions of such actors to the conditions that underpin these crises in the United States through their market and nonmarket activities. On the basis of their analysis, the authors make recommendations on the role of governance and civil society in relation to such commercial actors in a post-COVID-19 world.