Good food should be a public good

Public over commercial interest

Access to affordable, quality food is a public interest, yet the food system serves commercial interests. Food companies make billions in profits, while 1 in 7 Dutch citizens suffer from some form of food insecurity. Time to take back control. Let’s make good food a public facility, so that healthy and sustainable food becomes the easiest and most affordable choice for everyone. And since the government isn’t taking responsibility, we’ve just started it ourselves. Join the movement and sign our manifesto.

Commercial food industry

For many things that are important in our daily lives, we have public facilities, like for housing, health care, transportation and childcare, but for food we have no such public facility. We seem to find it normal that our food - one of our most basic needs - is produced and sold by commercial businesses that are driven in the first place by profit and shareholder interests. By companies that know that most money can be made of our cravings of sugar, salt and fat and that have little interest in our health and wellbeing or the historical, social and cultural roles that our food plays.

Good food as a public good

In our societies, food went from something belonging to nature or culture, to something that can make one very richt on the one hand - the CEOs of big food companies are among the richest people in the world - and to something that’s unavailable if you don’t have enough money on the other hand. Why is it that we put such an important determinant of our health and wellbeing in the hands of commercial companies? Why isn’t food a public good? These are questions that Public Food and Vormforensen would like to pose.