Two in Five Workers Feed You

That’s the headline from IPES-Food’s latest blockbuster report, but there’s way more behind the headline

I’m always proud to be part of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, an incredible group of leaders in everything from climate science to political economy (just wait until you see our new members next year). From time to time, the panel outdoes itself, and I’m particularly pleased because some of my students got to pitch into a landmark report.

We’ve trawled the grey and secondary literature, done our own primary research, and had workshops at which we’ve presented these findings to leading scholars, unions, and social movements. The headline is this: two out of five workers are in the business of feeding everyone on Earth, and that’s just the people who get paid to do it. On top of that 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work every day make that exploitation possible.

I’ll write up more soon, but here’s the launch webinar (and here’s the transcript).