Labor has a long history of profiting from poker machines. Will they move a motion at the ALP National Conference to address gambling harm? Veteran anti-pokies crusader, journalist Stephen Mayne reports.
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This post was originally published on IndigenousX.
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The world’s biggest consulting firms have grown large and profitable by walking all sides of the street in their relationships with governments, but are now coming under increased pressure, presenting new risks.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Australian entrepreneur and ex-PwC partner David A. Collard is being sued for rent on both his fancy apartment in Manhattan as well as Scale’s 88th floor World Trade Centre head quarters. That’s on top of an ATO tax raid, unpaid staff and creditors, and defaulting on the purchase of Britishvolt in the UK.
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Scale Facilitation is in default in its takeover of Britishvolt. After a crime taskforce raid in Australia and failures to pay staff in the US, its chief executive David A. Collard remains defiant
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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When the ABC broke the story in March that the Legalise Cannabis Party had made it onto the list of approved organisations where JobSeeker recipients could volunteer to meet their JobSeeker mutual obligations, Rex Patrick thought he’d use FOI to get to the bottom of it. The FOI results have left him wondering, who’s been smoking what?
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby
More than 300 companies operating in Papua New Guinea are facing penalties and will be issued infringement notices for not adhering to the country’s labour laws, Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso has announced.
He said on Thursday that pending the official release of the full report of the National Capital District (NCD) Combined Labour Inspection Programme (CLIP), 431 companies were inspected and the findings were:
- about 18 companies were identified as paying 444 workers below the K3.50 (NZ$1.57) an hour minimum wage in the wholesale and retail industry, and
- 228 companies were not remitting Nasfund contributions affecting 2457 employees with about 20 of them non compliant.
Within 51 days, 431 companies or establishments were covered.
Out of the 431 companies, only 425 companies provided information of their total number of employees within their establishment, which comprised of the overall total of 13,410 employees covered.
Out of the 431 companies, only 421 companies provided their minimum wage information.
And out of the 421 responses, 403 responded to have their employees paid on and above K3.50 the national minimum wage, while only 18 companies paid below the national minimum wage of K3.50, which in total affects 444 employees.
Industries varied
“For companies that have been issued infringement notices of non-compliance and charged under OSH and OWC, we are yet to receive the amount charged, and also to confirm which companies have paid and those that are yet to pay or remit respectively,” Rosso said.The number of industries varied, but a high number of wholesale and retail industries totaling to 249 companies under this industry were covered to confirm that “we have a high number of this industry that operates within the nation’s capital city”.
Others included trade, hotels and restaurants (27), transport, storage and communication (9), manufacturing (15), primary production (3), building and construction (11) and security (6).
The inspections in NCD in the last two months also collected statutory fees from occupational, safety and health regulations, and workers compensation insurance policy payments.
Rosso released this during the handover takeover ceremony of the Labour Ministry to Rai Coast MP Kessy Sawang on Thursday.
“All of these offending companies were issued notices to comply with the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations requirements, and other government statutory requirements such as the Bank of Papua New Guinea regulations on Nasfund contributions,” he said.
“This proves a point I have made many a time, that the department has the potential to generate revenue in the non-tax regime, provided sufficient recurrent funding is made available in the DLIR annual allocations,” Rosso said.
Strengthening laws
He said that in his capacity as the Deputy Prime Minister, he would work with Minister Sawang to ensure DLIR was adequately supported to continue this exercise and others.“Strengthening to the existing legislature and fees and fines are also areas I focused on, and Minister Sawang is tasked with carrying on this activity and similar, like, freeing up 10,000 jobs presently held by foreign workers through up-skilling of local talent.
Other notable achievements during his time with the department include the launching of the National Training Policy 2022 to 2023 and the Labour Market Information Policy 2022-2023, and the ratification of three important International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions which were the Violence and Harassment Convention 2019 (No. 190), the Tripartite Consultation Convention 1976 (No. 144), and the Labour Inspection Convention 1974 (No. 81).
Rosso congratulated Sawang on her appointment as minister, and said he looked forward to her leadership of the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations for a smart, secure, fair and decent work environment for PNG.
Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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Economist Rory Robertson has been waging war on Big Sugar and Sydney University for more than a decade. Nothing if not dogged, Robertson’s campaign has taken an unexpected turn over recent days, as James F Sice reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Saudi Arabia is pouring a fortune into soccer, including £180m a year for Cristiano Ronaldo. But while the counterfeiters see a chance to make money, the fans won’t forget human rights
I saw something to make me scoff with amused despair, a thing embodying many a madness and badness of our age. It was a child-sized replica football shirt, swinging gently on its hanger, at a seaside market stall on the Adriatic coast. It’s a noticeably well-appointed retail operation, this stall. Beach towels, Bluetooth speakers, snorkels, fridge magnets, swimwear, pouches of lavender, imitation handguns … you know the kind of thing.
The football strips included plenty of Croatian national team shirts, plus those of clubs with Croatian players: Modrić’s name printed on Real Madrid shirts, Perišić’s on Tottenham’s, Kovačić’s at Chelsea and so on. (I didn’t ask, but there is probably a deal to be done on that Chelsea shirt, as Kovačić is now at Man City). I doubt any of these garments were what you might call authentic™ official© merchandise®. But whatever.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Something has gone horribly wrong in how customers are treated. We all know it. Peter Mills traces the problem back to how executives and business leaders are incentivised.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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An ex-PwC partner’s lithium battery startup pulled a top flight crowd from both sides of Australia politics to its grand Manhattan opening. But it’s not all bubbles and banter for staff at Scale Facilitation, writes Sean Johnson
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen touched down in Beijing on Thursday and ate at a popular Yunnan restaurant with the U.S. ambassador before meeting with key officials on Friday.
Yellen met with China’s central bank governor Yi Gang, former economy point-man Liu He and State Premier Li Qiang on Friday to discuss the global, U.S. and Chinese economies.
In prepared remarks, Yellen told Li she hoped her visit would spur more regular channels of communication between the world’s two largest economies, adding that both countries had a duty to “show leadership” on global challenges such as climate change.
She said Washington would “in certain circumstances, need to pursue targeted actions to protect its national security,” but disagreements over such moves should not jeopardize the broader relationship.
“We seek healthy economic competition that is not winner-take-all but that, with a fair set of rules, can benefit both countries over time,” she said.
Separately, speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Yellen noted concerns in the U.S. business community.
“I am communicating the concerns that I’ve heard from the U.S. business community, including China’s use of non-market tools like expanded subsidies for its state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, as well as barriers to market access for foreign firms,” she said.
Meanwhile, in a sign of a possible thaw in China-U.S. relations, the usually provocative nationalist state tabloid Global Times asked in a tweet, what’s Yellen’s “preferred choice of food while in China?
“It seems that Yunnan cuisine takes the top spot, as a popular Yunnan restaurant in Beijing’s Sanlitun area recently shared a picture of Yellen using chopsticks to enjoy a meal shortly after her arrival in Beijing on Thursday.”
Yellen is in Beijing amid a flurry of visits aimed at breaking the ice between Washington and Beijing after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese government balloon over the United States.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in late June and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will visit Beijing later this month Bloomberg reported.
Mediating influence
Yellen has a near “mission impossible” – to convince China that its measures in the interests of state security, restricting technology exports to China, are not intended to harm China’s interests as a rising nation state.
But Chinese state media showed signs that Beijing may be in the mood for compromise – at least when it comes to trade and investment.
China’s Global Times, in an uncharacteristically positive turn, editorialized that even though U.S. officials are downplaying any expectations from Yellen’s visit, “Chinese experts believe that one major point of significance of Yellen’s trip is to keep high-level communication channels open, which may help bilateral relations walk out of their downward spiral.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen walks after arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China, Thursday, July 6, 2023. Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via Reuters Ahead of Yellen’s visit, in a response to restrictions on China’s access to high-technology semiconductor chips, on Monday, China announced it was restricting exports of two critical components in the chips that modern life runs on.
“This is just the beginning,” Wei Jianguo, a former Chinese vice-minister of commerce, told the China Daily. “China’s tool box has many more types of measures available.”
The trade and investment entanglement of China and the U.S. makes what the U.S. is now referring to as “de-risking,” rather than decoupling, hugely complex due to the entangled nature of the two nations’ trade.
Firm on security
It’s likely Beijing may think that accepting Yellen’s visit and appearing to be more receptive, as opposed to the cooler reception Secretary of State Antony Blinken received, could give the U.S. pause for thought about its tech restrictions.
But Yellen reiterated that her mission, like Blinken’s, was to open up lines of communication and avoid a catastrophic confrontation between the world’s two leading superpowers.
“I am glad to be in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials and business leaders. We seek a healthy economic competition that benefits American workers and firms and to collaborate on global challenges,” Yellen said in a tweet.
“We will take action to protect our national security when needed, and this trip presents an opportunity to communicate and avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding.”
A possible thaw
“Yellen is a more rational voice on China issues within the Biden administration,” Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University told The Wall Street Journal.
But her visit comes amid “unsafe” moves in the South China Sea, a war of words over Chinese fentanyl exports, revelations of a multibillion-dollar Chinese spy base in Cuba and daily military harassment of Taiwan.
Wendy Cutler, a former diplomat and Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute, talking to Taiwan +, an English-language TV news service, said of Yellen’s visit, “No 1, she has to go through the list of U.S. grievances, including their recent announcement of [export restrictions on] two critical minerals, the way U.S. companies are being treated in China and recent legislation to create more uncertainty in the business climate.”
Cutler added that, as Yellen has previously pointed out, the U.S. doesn’t seek to decouple the two superpower’s economies, but “there are sectors of national security concern [and] we’re not going to be shy about protecting that.”
Back to business
Yellen took a jab at China’s planned economy, saying that Beijing should return to the era of market reforms that former leader Deng Xiaoping ushered in and which led to decades of rocket-fueled economic growth.
“A shift toward market reforms would be in China’s interests,” Yellen told U.S. business executives on Friday, according to reports.
“A market-based approach helped spur rapid growth in China and helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a remarkable economic success story,” Yellen added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen meets with representatives of the U.S. business community in China, in Beijing, July 7, 2023. Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter Yellen said that China’s vast middle-class was a market for American goods and services, again stressing that Washington’s bevy of restrictions on trade against China were about national security and not holding back Chinese development.
“We seek to diversify, not to decouple,” she said. “A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.”
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Chris Taylor for RFA.
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722 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in over $1 trillion in windfall profits each year for the past two years amid soaring prices and interest rates, while billions of people are having to cut back or go hungry.
Analysis by Oxfam and ActionAid of Forbes’ “Global 2000” ranking shows they made $1.09 trillion in windfall profits in 2021 and $1.1 trillion in 2022, with an 89 percent jump in total profits compared to average total profits in 2017-2020. For this analysis, windfall profits are defined as those exceeding average profits in 2017-2020 by more than ten percent.
45 energy corporations made on average $237 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022. Governments could have increased global investments in renewable energy by 31 percent had they taxed at 90 percent the massive windfall profits that oil and gas producers funneled to their rich shareholders last year. There are now 96 energy billionaires with a combined wealth of nearly $432 billion ($50 billion more than in April last year).
Food and beverage corporations, banks, Big Pharma, and major retailers also cashed in on the cost-of-living crisis that has seen more than a quarter of a billion people in 58 countries hit by acute food insecurity in 2022.
Extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.
- 18 food and beverage corporations made on average about $14 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022, enough to cover the $6.4 billion funding gap needed to deliver life-saving food assistance in East Africa more than twice over. Oxfam estimates that one person is likely to die of hunger every 28 seconds across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Global food prices rose more than 14 percent in 2022.
- 28 drug corporations made on average $47 billion a year in windfall profits, and 42 major retailers and supermarkets made on average $28 billion a year in windfall profits.
- Nine aerospace and defense corporations raked in on average $8 billion a year in windfall profits even as 9,000 people die every day from hunger, much of that driven by conflict and war.
“People are sick and tired of corporate greed. It’s obscene that corporations have raked in billions of dollars in extraordinary windfall profits while people everywhere are struggling to afford enough food or basics like medicine and heating,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
“Big business is gaslighting us all —they’re hiking prices to make monster profits, plundering people under the cover of a polycrisis.”
“A few increasingly dominant corporations are monopolizing markets and setting prices sky-high to line the pockets of their rich shareholders. Big Pharma, energy giants and big supermarket chains shamelessly fattened their profit margins throughout both the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. Most worryingly —in the absence of regulation, including progressive taxation— governments have invited this,” Behar said.
There is a growing body of evidence that corporate profiteering is playing a significant role in supercharging inflation, echoing fears that corporations are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to boost profits margins —a trend dubbed “greedflation” and “excuseflation”. Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, suggested in May that corporations are engaging in “greedflation”, while the IMF last week published a study showing that corporate profits account for nearly half the increase in Europe’s inflation over the past two years.Huge corporate profits have coincided with the degradation of pay and conditions for workers.
Oxfam estimates that top-paid CEOs across four countries enjoyed a real-term 9 percent pay hike in 2022, while workers’ wages fell by 3 percent. One billion workers in 50 countries took an average pay cut of $685 in 2022, a collective loss of $746 billion in real wages compared to if wages had kept up with inflation.
Oxfam and ActionAid are calling on governments to claw back gains driven by profiteering. A tax of 50 to 90 percent on the windfall profits of 722 mega-corporations could generate between $523 billion and $941 billion both for 2021 and 2022. This is money that could be used to help people struggling with hunger, rising energy bills and poverty in rich countries, and to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to support countries in the Global South. For example:- An injection of $400 billion into the fund for loss and damage agreed to at COP27 last year. Loss and damage finance needs are urgent, with estimates saying that low- and middle-income countries could face costs of up to $580 billion annually by 2030. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on rich countries to impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies and redirect the money to vulnerable countries suffering worsening losses from the climate crisis.
- Cover the financing gap ($440 billion) to provide universal social protection coverage and healthcare to more than 3.5 billion people living in low- and lower- middle-income countries, and the financing gap ($148 billion) to provide universal access to pre-primary, primary and secondary education in these same countries. This would support the hiring of millions of new teachers, nurses and healthcare workers across the Global South.
“Enough is enough. Government policy should not allow mega-corporations and billionaires to profiteer from people’s pain. Governments must tax windfall profits of corporations across all sectors —and invest that money back in helping people and deterring future profiteering. They must put the interests of their great majorities ahead of the greed of a privileged few,” said ActionAid Secretary-General Arthur Larok.
“Taxing windfall profits is smart economic policy —it’s a very clear and direct source of money for development and tackling climate change. Piling more loans onto poorer countries is what makes absolutely no sense when debt is accelerating the climate crisis”.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
- 18 food and beverage corporations made on average about $14 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022, enough to cover the $6.4 billion funding gap needed to deliver life-saving food assistance in East Africa more than twice over. Oxfam estimates that one person is likely to die of hunger every 28 seconds across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Global food prices rose more than 14 percent in 2022.
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By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby
Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s tribute to Papua New Guinea’s businessman Sir Kostas Constantinou was very touching as she recapped how his businesses touched the lives of the people of Samoa.
Her message, read out by Samoa’s High Commissioner to Australia, Hinari Petana during Sir Kostas’ wake in Brisbane where he died from heart complications last month, was a reminder to his children to continue the legacy he had left in Samoa.
High Commissioner Petana and her entourage, including Sir Kostas’ Samoan family, were all present throughout his funeral service, the burial and the wake.
PNG businessman Sir Kostas Constantinou . . . a development visionary in the Asia-Pacific region. Image: IB There was also a fitting ceremony where George Jr, son of the late Sir Kostas, was handed Samoa’s chiefly red ‘ulafala (pandanus key necklace) most often worn by Samoan tulafale (orator chiefs).
His father was adorned with a chiefly title Tulaniu in Samoa — George Jr will take over the reign as the next in line. He was also presented a Samoan ie toga, a fine mat.
“He touched the lives of so many spirits in the Pacific region, in particular in our country, Samoa, and its people through rewarding and inspirational investments,” Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said in her message.
“The contribution of Sir Kostas to our country has been hugely significant, especially in our economic growth.
‘Passion and influence’
“His passion and influence in our communities will be remembered by everyone that enters the doors of Taumeasina Island Resort, the Bank of South Pacific, as much as he shaped everything, our cultural values, during one of his few visits to Samoa, including his acceptance of his chiefly title.“To George Jr and the children, may you continue your father’s legacy in Samoa and join us as a family in the coming years.”
Sir Kostas, 66, was regarded as a visionary businessman who employed thousands of people and developed businesses across the Asia-Pacific region.
He was the founder of Constantinou Group of Companies.
His leadership and commitment to excellence and innovation was a key factor in driving the Constantinou Group, including Airways Hotels and Apartments, Hebou Construction, Lamana Hotel and Lamana Development Ltd, Monier Ltd and Rouna Quarries Ltd in PNG to success.
Sir Kostas served as chair of the Bank South Pacific Financial Group Ltd and Air Niugini for many years.
He was also a director of Oil Search Ltd.
He was the father of Constantia, George, Andrea and Theophilus and grandfather to Imogen, Syliva, Harry, Zoe and George.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says New Zealand’s largest ever trade delegation to China has been “knocking on open doors”.
Hipkins held a media briefing yesterday on the final day of his week-long trip to China.
Hipkins has headed the trade delegation to China and has had successful meetings with top-ranking politicians, including Chinese President Xi Jingping.
He said it had been a great trip, and he had been heartened by the positive reaction business leaders in the delegation had received.
“There is a huge market here for New Zealand products and services and so I think for me one of the big insights was the door is wide open.”
Hipkins said he had had the opportunity to see just how thriving the relationship between New Zealand and China was, “particularly building on a very successful event last night which had hundreds of local and New Zealand business people able to get together”.
The relationship with China was “in good heart”, he said.
He said he had navigated the relationship with China in the same way New Zealand always had, “to be open, to be candid, to be transparent and to be consistent in our position”.
Watch the media briefing:
Visa issues
Hipkins said the government had been well aware of difficulties with visas for a long time.“We knew it was going to be a bit of a bumpy road when we reopened the border and had this huge backlog to work our way through — particularly in areas like international student visas for example, which can be quite time consuming to process because there’s a lot more in them.
“The timeliness around international student visa applications is looking pretty good, the timeliness around business visas is improving, the timeliness around visitor visas remains a challenging area for us because there’s a high volume of them and obviously the frequency with which they are flooding in continues to put the system under pressure.”
He said things like identity verification were causing delays, but “certainly we’re working hard to try and speed that up”.
NZ Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and the trade delegation . . . “A very positive vibe.” Image: Jane Patterson/RNZ News A ‘very positive vibe’
Sealord chairperson Jamie Tuuta, the head of the business delegation, said there had been a “very positive vibe”.“It’s been wonderful to be part of the delegation, really promoting Aotearoa New Zealand as one and I think it’s been a real success.”
He said the fact the prime minister had access to the top three politicians in China had been very important for business in China and economic relationships.
“I think it really just demonstrates the longstanding relationship that New Zealand has had with China.”
He said New Zealanders probably did not understand the level of coverage the trip has brought to the Chinese people in the media and social media, and said the large size of the delegation has been very beneficial.
Tuuta said the feedback from everyone on the trip is that it has been “a great success and the nature of the conversations that have been had are warm and constructive, are such where actually it’s positioned us well as a country and as businesses to grow trade and to work constructively with our customers and market”.
He said looking at other countries doing business in China, New Zealand businesses did punch above their weight.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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Papua New Guineans have been challenged to “actively contribute” towards development projects like the Boroko Transformation Project if citizens want to see change in the Pacific’s largest country.
Prime Minister James Marape issued this challenge this week when launching the National Capital District Commission’s Boroko Transformation Project in Port Moresby.
“This must happen. We all have a job to do, a role to play. Not just here in Port Moresby, but also around the country,” Marape said.
“If you want Papua New Guinea to develop, you have a job to do as well. Take care of Boroko.
“Don’t spit betel nut spittle here. We do not have other cities, we only have this city.”
Betel nut is the seed of the fruit of the areca palm with distinctive blood-red juice. It is chewed with betel leaf and lime for their effects as a mild stimulant, causing a warming sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness.
It is popular across Papua New Guinea and in neighbouring countries.
24-hour business hub
The Boroko Commercial Business District will undergo major developments to enable it to achieve the status of a 24-hour business hub that is clean and safe for residents, businesses and visitors.NCD Governor Powes Parkop said this project is part of NCDC’s Vision 2030 to transform Port Moresby.
“This city carries our name. It is our image, our pride. It is the first place of arrival and the last place of departure for all our friends, investors and tourists from all over world,” he said.
“They define our people and our country by this capital city of ours. That is why it is very important that we lift this capital city leaving no stones behind.”
According to City Manager Ravu Frank, the plans for the Boroko Transformation Project were drawn up in November last year and since then, more than K400,000 (NZ$186,000) has been spent in major clean-ups and road work programmes, setting the foundations for developments expected in the future.
“The Boroko Transformation project is all geared to achieve our desire, wish and objective of a clean, safe, healthy and a planned Boroko for a liveable environment,” Frank said.
On Monday this week, Boroko was declared a “betel nut-free zone” and other similar regulations will kick in as the transformation project unfolds.
Republished with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The big end of town had a win late last week when the Albanese government delayed legislation aimed at shining light on multinational tax avoidance. Jason Ward explains why the backdown is bad news for taxpayers.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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New York: Apna Community Center organized a Round Table Conference to inform and educate Pakistani-Americans, particularly those associated with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) about a variety of free programs and schemes, including lucrative loans, offered by New York City.
Katie Chen, Deputy Commissioner of New York City’s Small Business Department, graced the conference with her presence as a special guest.
She shook hands with the women of the Pakistani community, individually. The event saw overwhelming participation from community people especially those running businesses.
Apna Community Center Chairman Pervez Siddiqui welcomed Deputy Commissioner Katie Chen and introduced her to the guests.
He said that there are many opportunities for small business in New York City, it is necessary that we give more awareness to our community.
On this occasion, the Chief Executive Officer of Apna Community Center, Iram Hanif, while addressing the audience, said: “Our effort is to provide a bridge to all the community members who want to start any new business by providing them with the facilities available in the resources of the city government so that they can play an active role in the development of the country.”
On this occasion, Apna Community Center Executive Director Shazia Watto brought to the attention of Deputy Commissioner Katie Chen that if the application process is made easier, more people will be able to benefit.
Katie Chen, Deputy Commissioner of New York City’s Small Business Department, said that the city government has various programs for small businesses, including emergency services, marketing, and one-stop shopping, which you can learn to start your own business.
The owners of the small businesses participating in the event asked various questions from the Deputy Commissioner and got more information.
Finally, the community center and the participants expressed their gratitude to Katie Chen for her visit.
The post Apna community center holds an awareness ’round table’ for SMEs on NYC’s different lucrative schemes, loans for SMEs first appeared on VOSA.
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This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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We continue our Juneteenth special with more from Harry Belafonte, the legendary actor, singer and civil rights activist, who died in April at the age of 96. Belafonte last appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a special event at the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate Democracy Now!'s 20th anniversary. He co-headlined the event with Noam Chomsky. It was the first time they had done a public event together. Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had just been elected president, and ongoing struggles for freedom and justice in the United States. “We just have to get out our old coats, dust them off, stop screwing around and just chasing the good times, and get down to business,” he said. “There's some ass-kicking out here to be done. And we should do it.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Historians believe that some of our earliest human ancestors first ate fish nearly 2 million years ago. According to Science, they gathered at ancient lakes and rivers in what we now know as Kenya and caught and deboned catfish with stone tools. Back then, seafood was a vital source of nutrition for our ancestors. Today, we have a plethora of foods to choose from, but we still have a big appetite for creatures from the deep blue sea. According to some estimates, global seafood production reached a staggering 179 million metric tons in 2018, and most of that was consumed by humans.
But there’s a problem with the amount of fish, shrimp, crab, lobster, and other sea animals we’re eating: research suggests that the ocean can no longer cope with our demand. According to the World Bank, nearly 90 percent of global marine fish stocks are either fully exploited or overfished. This is bad news for underwater ecosystems, because it creates a catastrophic imbalance, leading to the loss of vulnerable marine life.
But fishing gear itself is also a threat to wildlife. When industrial fishing trawlers drag their nets through the ocean, they don’t just catch fish, but they also accidentally catch animals like seals and seabirds, too. According to one study by WWF and Sky Ocean Rescue, around 720,000 seabirds, 345,000 seals and sea lions, 300,000 cetaceans, 250,000 turtles, and millions of sharks are dying annually after getting caught up in the fishing industry.
Fixing all of this is incredibly complex. The global seafood market is a profitable industry, worth more than $257 billion, and it’s run by several major corporations, like Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, US’ Red Chamber Group, and Norway’s Mowi. But at least one of the industry’s biggest players, Thailand’s Thai Union, is ready for change. Here’s more about how seafood could look in the future (hint: it could be less about fish and more about plants).
Seafood industry giant embraces vegan innovation
In 2021, Thai Union, one of the world’s biggest producers of seafood, hit headlines when it announced it was gearing up to launch vegan tempura shrimp. It wasn’t the first time the major company had dipped its toe into the plant-based sector—before that, it launched plant-based crabcakes and dim sum into the food service sector.
In 2023, the company is more committed than ever to the world of plant-based seafood. It’s driven by consumer demand, of course, but also by the exciting untapped creative potential of vegan seafood and the environmental benefits it brings.
“While the alternative meat market is fairly developed, the alternative seafood market is still in its nascency,” Maarten Geraets, Thai Union’s managing director of alternative proteins, told VegNews. It’s true that, while the plant-based meat market is expected to hit more than $15 billion by 2027, right now, estimates indicate that the plant-based fish market will hit $1.3 billion by 2031. It’s growth, but there is still plenty of room for more.
“The potential is extremely exciting and is incredibly relevant for an incumbent seafood player,” says Geraets. “This demand will drive innovation within the seafood industry, and we’ll undoubtedly see more future-fit, alternative seafood solutions in the coming years. Consumers are very willing to try new propositions, but brands need to impress to drive repeated consumption.”
In the UK and Europe, one of Thai Union’s most recognized brands is John West. When it comes to tinned tuna, you can find it in most fish-eating consumer cupboards. In a bid to capitalize on this trust and, indeed, impress its customers, earlier this year, John West launched Vegan Fish-Free Tuna with Tomato and Basil and Vegan Fish-Free Tuna with a Dash of Oil in the Netherlands, where 42 percent of the population follow a flexitarian approach to diet.
The launch supports Thai Union’s Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans initiative, which aims to strengthen its growth and profitability while also focusing on health, well-being, and sustainability. “The world needs this change,” says Geraets. “In my view, the seafood industry must adapt and embrace the rich opportunities presented by this shift in consumer behavior.”
John WestJoining with vegan innovators
But even the biggest of companies can’t transform an industry alone. And they don’t have to, because right now, the food industry is not short of brands developing creative, great-tasting vegan seafood products.
Good Catch, for example, recently debuted the first plant-based salmon burger in the US. Canadian brand Gardein is known for its Crabless Cakes, while US brand the Ish Food Company, a certified B Corporation, makes everything from vegan shrimp to vegan lobster.
Last year, Thai Union partnered with the latter to help increase its manufacturing and distribution, and subsequently invest in the growth of the sustainable vegan seafood space. It has also partnered with French algae company Algama, plus, other seafood giants have also started to see the potential in plant-based innovation. In 2020, Bumble Bee Foods, a leading producer of canned tuna, partnered with Good Catch to help it bring its plant-based fish products to more consumers.
Much like Geraets, Bumble Bee Foods’ president Jan Tharp believes it is “critically important” for the seafood industry to adapt. “As an industry [we need to] continue to find innovative solutions to decouple growth with environmental impact,” she said in a statement. “Providing great-tasting alternative ways for consumers to enjoy ocean-inspired foods is a key pillar of our long-term commitment to ocean health.”
Other companies have kept things in-house. After spying the potential in the vegan seafood sector, Conagra Brands, another food industry giant, launched fish-free fingers under its plant-based Green Cuisine range with Birds Eye. The latter is known for its frozen fish and, in the UK, its very own fish finger mascot, Captain Birdseye, is iconic. At the time, Birds Eye’s senior marketing manager Jess Ali said that it wanted to create a vegan version of its original recipe to “appeal to more Brits dietary requirements.”
There’s no doubt, the seafood industry needs to change. But as Thai Union is keen for us to know, this isn’t going unnoticed by the fishing industry’s biggest names. Progress is underway, assures Garaets. In 2022, for example, the company launched the first vegan shrimp wonton in Thailand, which was then nominated in the Gulfood Innovation Awards “in recognition of the fresh innovation” it brought to the plant-based category.
“We are actively pursuing this opportunity for the US market and look forward to launching further alternative protein solutions for consumers in time,” said Geraets. “As a new category, we need to develop more meaningful connections with consumers and find new ways to tell our story.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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When vegan fast-food restaurant Honeybee Burger first opened in Los Angeles nearly four years ago, founder Adam Weiss had one mission: to make plant-based food more accessible for the sake of human health, animals, and the planet. After opening Honeybee Burger in LA’s Mid-City neighborhood, Weiss would go on to open a ghost kitchen and a second location in Venice, CA.
This month, Weiss is putting Honeybee Burger into hibernation and launching a brand new plant-based concept with co-owner John Salley, an NBA legend and longtime vegan. Located in the same Mid-City location that formerly housed Honeybee Burger, Mother Plucker is the city’s newest vegan chicken concept.
After its soft opening on April 1, the vegan fast-food restaurant is gearing up for its official grand opening set for Saturday, April 15. Hungry patrons and longtime customers of Honeybee Burger can expect to find plant-based chicken tenders—made by vegan chicken company Tindle—on the menu alongside French fries, coleslaw, and a number of dipping sauces such as buffalo, three varieties of ranch (classic, avocado, and chipotle), barbecue, and Sweet Heat.
TindleDairy-free shakes in Oreo, vanilla, creamsicle, strawberry, chocolate, and Thin Mint round out Mother Plucker’s current menu.
In the future, Mother Plucker will expand its menu with exclusive items from its corporate partner Tindle. Chicken-and-waffle sandwiches and breakfast items are just a few of the items coming to the restaurant’s menu.
“Mother Plucker will have the exclusive launch of a few [Tindle] products,” Weiss tells VegNews. “We’ve tried every single vegan chicken on the planet, […] and Tindle’s was our favorite.” Already, this collaboration has brought an exclusive item to Mother Plucker—Tindle’s tenders are making their US debut at the chicken shop.
Taylor McKinnonThe eatery is hosting its grand opening this Saturday between 11:11 AM and 4:20 PM when customers can stop by to meet Salley himself and pick up a free mini meal that features two tenders, fries, dipping sauce, and choice of lemonade or iced tea.
“As a strong contender in the LA restaurant scene, we believe Mother Plucker will set a high bar for consumers–especially when it comes to delicious and memorable chicken dishes,” Andre Menezes, CEO of TiNDLE, tells VegNews.
“LA is home to some of the most unique and cutting-edge culinary concepts, so we’re thrilled to partner with innovators like Weiss who understand how impactful the plant-based industry can be when we harness the power of new and creative partnerships,” he says.
Mother Plucker lands in LA
Mother Plucker is a collaborative effort by several LA vegan businesses, entrepreneurs, and community members. Among them are Taylor McKinnon, Charlie Kim, and Aaron Haxton—co-owners of Mr. Charlie’s, the gone-viral restaurant dubbed “vegan McDonald’s” by TikTok.
Mutual connections first brought Weiss and McKinnon together. Since their first encounter, the entrepreneurs developed a relationship built on mutual support, despite them running competing businesses located less than half a mile from one another.
“[Weiss] has been a huge supporter of [Mr. Charlie’s] since we met,” McKinnon tells VegNews. “We’ve been through quite a few journeys together figuring out the market, and he’s introduced me to great people and has been a massive ambassador. When the opportunity to serve him came up, I called him.”
McKinnon, who had been working with Tindle to expand Mr. Charlie’s menu, was inspired by the company’s vegan chicken offerings—so much so that he was motivated to create an entirely new concept, Mother Plucker, around the brand’s products.
Next Gen FoodsWeiss had disclosed to McKinnon that he was thinking about launching a new vegan concept, and after being impressed by Tindle’s tenders, McKinnon was ready to approach the Honeybee Burger founder with his idea for Mother Plucker. “I just remember thinking, ‘Adam could really use this product,” McKinnon says.
After the duo discussed bringing Mother Plucker to fruition, Weiss ultimately decided it was time for Honeybee Burger to “go into hibernation.”
John Salley joins the team
Weiss, an investor and former Wall Street finance expert, grew Honeybee Burger from the ground up. “I know you grew Honeybee from a name, slideshow, and an idea,” Weiss recounts McKinnon telling him. “How would you feel about teaming up with a major vegan superstar?”
For McKinnon, Salley was the perfect fit. The NBA legend, a regular customer of both Mr. Charlie’s and Honeybee Burger, immediately loved the concept for Mother Plucker.
“[McKinnon] came to me and said, ‘[Weiss] is thinking about moving Honeybee over to something different,” Salley tells VegNews. “I thought Mother Plucker was the greatest thing.”
With Salley on board as co-owner, McKinnon and Weiss connected over their ideas and goals for Mother Plucker and the transformation of the Honeybee Burger space began.
Honeybee Burger turns into Mother Plucker
With the help of his Mr. Charlie’s co-owners, McKinnon spearheaded Honeybee Burger’s renovation. “One of my biggest dreams was to leave [Weiss and his team] at peace,” McKinnon explains.
McKinnon banned Weiss from entering his restaurant space, and within 48 hours, Honeybee Burger was transformed into Mother Plucker. McKinnon tapped into Mr. Charlie’s team—from his co-owners to the restaurant’s sign-makers, uniform designers, and merchandise experts—to breathe life into Mother Plucker.
“Everything was made locally to create support for the environment and our sectors,” McKinnon says. “This keeps everyone in their jobs and keeps companies [engaging] locally.”
Taylor McKinnonDuring renovation, Weiss shares, he was completely out of his comfort zone but had full trust and confidence in McKinnon. When it came time to see his new restaurant, he was overjoyed with the space’s new look—but there was still one piece of business that he needed to attend to.
“We’re doing all this work, and [McKinnon] is paying for everything. I said to him, ‘We have to set your equity number,” Weiss explains. “When I go in [to Mother Plucker], I’m shaking. It was extraordinary, but I kept thinking, ‘What is he going to ask for?’”
When the two entrepreneurs finally sat down to discuss repayment, McKinnon had just a few words: “Brother, it’s yours. I want nothing.” Instead of repayment, McKinnon asked Weiss to distribute whatever equity he was willing to give him among his Mother Plucker staff.
“I come from Wall Street,” Weiss says. “Everyone gets equity, and everyone gets paid. [McKinnon] said to me, ‘Adam, Mr. Charlie’s wouldn’t be here without Honeybee. You have done so much in this industry, and you’re taking so much risk. You have 10 beautiful team members that I want to [help support].’”
“I needed some help a long time ago,” McKinnon shares. “Mr. Charlie’s stands up and pushes community spirit. In order to keep doing that, we have to keep doing the work—it’s important to us as a brand.”
Following in Mr. Charlie’s footsteps, Mother Plucker has also committed to hiring future employees from the Dream Center, a nationwide organization that helps unhoused and formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet by providing them with housing, training, and additional resources.
What about Honeybee Burger? Weiss decided to put the burger chain into hibernation—shuttering his Venice and ghost kitchen outposts earlier this year—after increased competition from other vegan fast-food restaurants.
Mother PluckerHowever, Weiss is toying with the idea of making Honeybee Burger a virtual concept. Some of Honeybee’s menu items may also make an appearance on the Mother Plucker menu or at in-store pop-ups. As for the restaurant’s highly anticipated New York location, Weiss has plans in development that he is hoping to announce soon.
“The idea of Mother Plucker, and working with [McKinnon], is not one born out of failure, but of opportunity,” Weiss says. “It’s not the story of an end, but of a better beginning.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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By Anish Chand in Suva
Post Fiji Ltd has engaged a law firm to recover $9.6 million from an Australia-based mail logistics company that used Post Fiji’s logo to conduct business dealings with postal agencies around the globe.
This, according to the Auditor-General in his report on the review of public enterprises 2020-2021 that was tabled in Parliament this week.
The Auditor-General said Post Fiji Ltd had no legal contract with the company that racked up the $9.6 million debt.
“To ensure that the company’s (Post Fiji Ltd) interests are always protected, any business engagements with external parties must be formalised with an agreement endorsed by the board,” said the Auditor-General.
“An international mail logistics company based in Australia used the logo of Post Fiji (Pte) Ltd for its business dealings with various postal agencies around the globe.
“Consequently, the international postal agencies recognised Post Fiji Ltd as the sender of all the international mails sent by the international company.
“As a result, Post Fiji (Pte) Ltd was invoiced by the international postal agencies for doing business with the international company.
“In addition, under the Universal Postal Union Agreement, Post Fiji (Pte) Ltd has a legal obligation to pay the international postal agencies through an invoice amount.
“To recover its costs, Post Fiji Ltd invoiced the international company for the amount it paid plus a percentage mark-up.
“Post Fiji (Pte) Ltd was unable to recover the cost as there was no legally binding agreement with the international company.”
The Auditor-General recommended that Post Fiji should explore all avenues to recover the significant debt owed and ensure that all significant business engagements in the future are endorsed by the board and an agreement is in place.
Post Fiji Ltd said lawyers were handling the matter and the legal battle between PFL, and the international company would take some time to resolve.
The balance of $9.6 million remains outstanding since June 2020.
Anish Chand is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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Corporate diversity and inclusion have become more about profits than about recognising the rights of women and minorities, argues ousted Te Whatu Ora chair Rob Campbell.
COMMENTARY: By Rob Campbell
Just as we are making some progress on diversity and inclusion policies in business governance and management my perverse mind is starting to have doubts.
Initially around gender diversity I was an enthusiastic camp follower. It seemed a relevant part of progressive social change.
As Te Whatu Ora chair, I was an advocate and supporter of a much stronger role for Māori in health governance and management. I was a strong promoter of inclusion in all my roles such as at Summerset, Tourism Holdings and Sky City.
I was recognised for this when awarded Chair of the Year a few years back, and the Beacon Award from the Shareholders’ Association at about the same time.
I think that we have made progress at business board and senior management level — by no means complete but barriers have been reduced and seats filled more appropriately.
I confess that even while I and many others were advocating and implementing this, my doubts crept in as the narrative morphed from one primarily about rights into one more based on demonstrated benefits, for example, to profitability.
Then the prize-giving started, the “champions” preened, and one could not help but wonder what interests were really being served. It really was not all that difficult or radical in its impact as after all — the replacements were from the same class and education and non-cis gender characteristics as the old.
Long overdue
It is a good thing rather than bad of course, long overdue and still far from complete.But the old hierarchies and principles of business control, practice and ownership have not been that much affected. We have more women in influential roles but the roles and expectations of those in the roles have not changed very much. Higher gender representation is a step on the way to gender equity in the workplace but not a final goal.
My perception is that ethnic diversity is facing an even harder road. There has been some progress but it seems that neither the will nor the availability of “suitable” candidates is as strong as it is on gender.
Of course this tells us something — our perception about what is “suitable” is limited and excludes all but a few from non-Pākehā communities. It is not that such communities do not have highly capable leaders but that the capability does not readily match the ways business expects its governance and management to be.
You could be kind and call this a cultural difference. Similar issues may hold back business governance diversity in terms of non-cis gender differences and neuro differences. Maybe what business wants is not real and far reaching diversity but “acceptable or non-disruptive” diversity.
Welcome to the boardroom and the executive floor on the terms that have always prevailed.
So this makes me think about “inclusion” too. There is an increasing range of inclusion programmes, training and schemes. My inclination is to welcome and support these and, as with gender, I have seen and celebrated individuals step up within such processes and succeed.
Cue more prizes, awards and media releases.
Common theme
But I see a common theme as we progress. Business is making pathways some for people from other cultures to become acceptable or suitable — on the terms of business. Colonialism has always done this politically and we can see this commercially as well.These are adaptable social systems well capable of changing appearance without changing substance.
Companies co-opting or paying mere lip service to diversity and inclusion? It’s almost universal.
I admire the people who take these opportunities. They often have to change a lot, to take on more than their peers at work, to model and represent. But business inclusion is inclusion into the world of business not business changing to match another culture, other than quite superficially.
I wonder if these processes are not more akin to “assimilation” than genuine diversity and inclusion. That is, always on the terms of the boss. Welcome to our club, on our terms. This assumes superiority of culture.
Just like assimilation sought to obscure and diminish the outside, the minority, the different in order to seem to include. Ultimately assimilation was seen for the destructive force in social policy that it was — a steamroller to flatten diversity not to encourage it.
Like assimilation, I don’t think, now that my thoughts have run to this point, that our “D&I” policies, appointments and programmes, will really be much of a force for change.
That does not make them bad, but lets not pretend they are more than they are. The same people still mainly fill the same roles according to the same rules, doing the same things, as they did before.
I welcome anyone who can convince me otherwise. I don’t like being the grumpy, cynical old man.
Rob Campbell is chancellor of AUT University and chairs NZ Rural Land Co and renewable energy centre Ara Ake. He is a former chair of health agency Te Whatu Ora, the Environmental Protection Authority, SkyCity Casino, Tourism Holdings, WEL Networks and Summerset. He trained as an economist and originally worked as a unionist before eventually becoming a professional director. This article was first published by Newsroom and is republished with the author’s permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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By 2040, more than half of the meat we eat will no longer come from farmed animals. Rather, it will be in the form of vegan or lab-grown protein, according to a new report published by United Kingdom intellectual property specialists GovGrant.
GovGrant’s report notes that companies are expected to make continued progress and break down more barriers related to vegan and cultured meat over the next several years. Specifically, by 2040, GovGrant predicts that cultured meat will make up 35 percent of the world’s meat consumption, and vegan meat replacements will comprise 25 percent—leaving less room for the way we traditionally produce meat.
“Since there’s such huge potential demand for lab-grown meat, that’ll only spur companies on to innovate further and perfect their products,” Adam Simmonds, a research associate at GovGrant, said in a statement.
Eat Just“This could become an interesting area of growth for the US and other countries, particularly as not many nations possess the expertise to produce this meat. There will definitely be an uplift in the number of producers, who’ll want to take full advantage of the upcoming boom in demand.”
United States leads growth of cultivated meat
Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown or cultivated meat, uses a small amount of animal cells and grows them in a lab setting to make a food product. The benefits to cultured meat are vast, with life-cycle assessments indicating that it will use significantly less land and water, emit fewer greenhouse gasses, and reduce agriculture-related pollution and eutrophication—in addition to no longer needing to face the ethical issues in the raising and slaughtering of animals.
Because the cultured meat sector is predicted to grow rapidly in its market share within the food industry, the report highlights the countries poised to lead the development. According to the report, the United States is currently responsible for over 60 percent of global investment in cultured meat—more than all other countries combined—and has broken the billion-dollar mark in the process.
Comparatively, Israel (21.72 percent), the Netherlands (5.67 percent), Singapore (4.61 percent), and the United Kingdom (1.31 percent) round out the top five of GovGrant’s list of countries most invested in cultured meats, while China (1.17 percent), South Korea (0.97 percent), Japan (0.60 percent), France (0.49 percent), and Spain (0.46 percent) round out the top 10.
Regulatory approval of cultured meat
Ever since the Singapore Food Agency approved Eat Just’s cultured chicken, created under its subsidiary GOOD Meat, in December 2020, there have been little other regulatory approvals for commercial sale of cultured meat products. However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently took a step towards allowing the sale of cultured meat in the US, deeming a meat product from UPSIDE Foods to be safe for human consumption while also engaging with multiple other firms to do the same.
UPSIDE FoodsLast November, California-based company UPSIDE Foods received a generally regarded as safe (GRAS) letter from the FDA, deeming its cultivated chicken filet safe for consumption in the US.
UPSIDE Foods worked with the FDA to receive its GRAS letter, becoming the first company in the world to get the FDA green light for cultured meat. In addition to releasing a memo explaining its approval, the FDA published a 104-page document prepared by UPSIDE Foods detailing the safety and production process of the company’s cultivated chicken filet.
“We are thrilled at FDA’s announcement that, after a rigorous evaluation, FDA accepts UPSIDE’s conclusion that our cultivated chicken is safe to eat,” David Kay, UPSIDE Foods’ Director of Communications, previously told VegNews.
“UPSIDE Foods is ushering in a new era in meat production with this ‘No Questions’ letter, and this historic step paves the way for our path to market in the United States,” Kay said.
UPSIDE Foods has been working towards approval since 2018, when the company worked with meat industry group North American Meat Institute (NAMI) to support the establishment of a regulatory framework that pairs the FDA and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) together in granting regulatory approval for cultivated meat. UPSIDE is now moving on to gain approval from the USDA.
UPSIDE FoodsUPSIDE Foods’ regulatory approval could pave the way for mass market adoption in the US. “With the FDA rubber-stamping lab-grown meat as safe, the market should really take off now,” Alec Griffiths, IP manager at GovGrant, said in a statement.
“That makes it more important than ever for companies to protect their assets, so we can expect to see an acceleration in the number of patents filed in the coming months and years—and plenty of new faces in the sector.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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How a fast-talking tech entrepreneur turned a $4m company into a $100m company overnight – without the assistance of customers. Michael West with chapter three in the story of Lakeba Group and amazing chief executive Giuseppi Porcelli.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Much discussion around breastfeeding is about women’s choice to breastfeed or not. But who really decides on how a baby is fed when a $55 billion industry is at stake?
A new series of studies published in The Lancet shows how baby food corporations influence infant feeding practices both nationally and globally, working through systems of power which are both direct and indirect, and highly gendered. Through these systems, a commercial ecosystem favourable to early weaning and sales of commercial milk formula (CMF) products is established. You can watch the Australasia & Pacific launch event of the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series here.
Overall the Series helps to understand the commercial actors and structural forces that influence feeding practices across entire populations, and put an end to unhelpful and deeply unfair narratives that place responsibility for infant and young child feeding solely onto women and families. Authors call for wide-ranging actions that end this harmful commercial influence.
Gendered power systems exploit vulnerabilities and policy gaps to shape breastfeeding practices
Sales of CMF products have been booming and are now $55 billion of global retail sales a year. The industry spends least $3 billion a year on marketing. This marketing spend completely swamps any spending by governments around the world on protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding.
Targeting parental anxieties and protecting breastfeeding effectively
The first paper in the Lancet series identifies concerning global trends and patterns in breastfeeding, and describes how typical infant behaviours are commonly misinterpreted as signs of insufficient or inadequate milk, and result in early use of breastmilk substitutes, and disruption of lactation.
New mothers and their infants and young children are well understood to be uniquely vulnerable to marketing. For this reason governments have agreed globally since 1981 that promotion of breastmilk substitutes should not be allowed. This agreement, including numerous subsequent Resolutions by the World Health Assembly, is known as the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. The Code covers specialised formulas, products known as ‘growing up’ or ‘toddler’ milks/formulas, and formula products for infants in the first year.
Women and children have specific human rights related to good quality maternity care that enables well informed decisions about breastfeeding made free from commercial influence. Women’s rights to adequate maternity protection in the workplace, freedom from discrimination and to a friendly environment for breastfeeding are also well documented. Furthermore, breastfeeding provides for realising the optimal reproductive health of women, as well as being the best way for the child to survive and grow.
The measures needed to provide an enabling environment for breastfeeding are well known but not widely implemented, and include the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, the International Labor Organization’s standards for maternity protections in employment, and Code implementation.
Baby and toddler food selection in a supermarket in Toronto, Canada. Picture: Shutterstock
The marketing playbook
Medical researchers have demonstrated that pharmaceutical companies use ‘disease mongering’ to promote sales of drugs, but less well known is how the CMF industry also pathologizes normal infant behaviour in order to create and reinforce parental anxieties and promote sales of high priced baby milk products.
The second paper in the Lancet series describes how the marketing playbook for formula products exploits the common vulnerabilities and anxieties of parents, and plugs gaps in policies and programs needed to support women to breastfeed. For example, CMF products including specialised formulas are offered to women and health professionals as solutions to pathologized infant behaviours such as crying, fussing or sleeplessness, or in response to anxieties about insufficient milk or allergy.
With only around 10% of births in facilities meeting BFHI standards for staff competencies on breastfeeding, and adopting Code provisions for health workers, health professionals are commonly poorly equipped to help women manage these issues. It is not unusual for industry to provide their continuing medical education on infant and young child feeding.
Indeed, health professionals are a central to formula marketing and are viewed as key ‘category entry points’. Marketing also occurs via influence on scientific research and medical guidelines, as well as industry support and sponsorship for health professional journals, conferences and medical organisations.
Marketing is also shown to use gender, positioning formula as ‘liberation in a can’, especially for women’s labour force participation and upward mobility. Breastfeeding and thereby women’s bodies, are portrayed as inherently difficult, unreliable, and inconvenient. Formula is offered as a lifestyle choice and a solution to all difficulties of infant care, while breastfeeding advocacy is framed as harmful moral judgement that causes women to feel guilty.
Confrontational messaging depicting “mommy wars” (for example, the Sisterhood of Motherhood advert) divides women by challenging the importance of breastfeeding, and depicting public health messages as anti-feminist. Such industry messaging turns attention towards individual ‘choice’, and – importantly – away from structural factors and policy gaps which constrain women’s decisions on infant feeding. It emphasises breastfeeding as individual women’s responsibility, rather than a narrative that bearing and rearing children is a collective responsibility.
Two-faced and gendered corporate power systems
The global boom of milk formula sales has resulted in immense power of formula companies to shape the ‘ecosystem’ for women’s infant feeding decisions, using the same industry ‘playbook’. This extends to stakeholder marketing whereby the power of the industry is used to influence the regulatory and policy environment at global and national levels in their own interests. Women’s voices may be unrepresented in such processes.
For many decades, the public face of the formula industry has been that of benevolence and corporate social responsibility, including the companies stating their so-called commitments to breastfeeding.
Less visible are corporations’ political activities to shape the infant feeding culture or ‘ecosystem’, including extensive lobbying by an international network of front groups that often operate covertly to block or delay marketing regulations. These more hidden political activities undermine and under-resource the structural supports for breastfeeding in health systems, employment and public financing.
Industry lobbying against marketing regulations is well documented, but the size of baby food market is also affected by other public policies. Industry discussions are open about how they use parental fatigue and uncertainty to sell their product – ‘what we are selling is actually sleep”.
In Australia, a 2016 baby food market report highlighted that changes to the paid parental leave policy ‘would influence whether breastfeeding was feasible’; longer leave would decrease sales, while ‘assisting the return to work would have the opposite impact’ . In Ireland, industry lobby groups including global formula companies have cautioned against maternity protection reforms and opposed extension of breastfeeding breaks.
‘Applied patriarchy’ and economic policies
Uniquely, the Series highlights the bigger picture of how key economic institutions, and taxation and fiscal policies advantage industry at the expense of women and children, and undermine and under resource unpaid work. For example, the third paper in the Lancet Series discusses how women’s unpaid care work is unmeasured by gendered economic statistical systems, excluded by the United Nation’s System of National Accounting which sets rules for what counts in GDP. Described by feminist economist Marilyn Waring as ‘applied patriarchy’, this system shows a rise in GDP when CMF sales rise, and a fall in GDP when breastfeeding increases.
Globally, women were estimated to provide over 23 billion litres of breastmilk a year in 2010. The Mothers Milk Tool provides updated estimates. Yet breastfeeding is under-recognised as an element of food policy and planning, and excluded from international and national food monitoring systems except in Norway.
Breastfeeding provides important food security for babies, but despite this, women’s voices are silenced in relevant policy discussions. In contrast, as shown in paper 3 of the Lancet Series, the baby formula, dairy and other industry representatives are privileged to comprise around a third of government delegations to the global food regulatory body, Codex Alimentarius. Codex sets minimum benchmarks for national food policies and standards, including on how commercial milk formula can be packaged and labelled for marketing.
The authors argue that addressing gender biases in statistical systems would make the economic gains from breastfeeding more visible and the implications for women’s well-being more evident, while also raising the priority of protecting breastfeeding in international and national trade decision making.
Time to care
Care of an infant is tiring and time consuming – exclusive breastfeeding as recommended for 6 months takes around 20 hours a week. For over a century, the International Labor Organization has sought to to protect the health of mothers and infants through promoting minimum standards for working mothers.
The Maternity Protection Convention provides for a minimum standard of 14 weeks paid maternity leave, and breastfeeding breaks, with payment at two thirds of previous earnings, and funded from public revenue.
Yet, more than half a billion women globally lack any of these protections, more than three in ten did not have at least 14 weeks paid at two thirds of previous earnings, and the majority live in countries with no entitlement to nursing breaks. Providing maternity and parental leave and provide breastfeeding breaks at ILO standards was both feasible and affordable in diverse country settings, costing no more than half a per cent of GDP.
Despite calls for transformative investments in the care economy in response to an escaling global crisis of care, governments rarely allocate necessary budgets. Instead superficial campaigns promoting ‘breast is best’ substitute for more difficult and costly measures addressing the structural drivers of infant feeding decisions. Without substantial societal investments, women’s choices are open to manipulation by exploitative marketing of CMF.
Central to addressing the global boom in milk formula sales are fiscal policies which shape social protection systems providing women with income security and poverty alleviation, access to public services such as quality childcare, and ensure health financing and medical training systems which avoid creating financial pressures for health facilities and health professionals to accept gifts, donations or sponsorship from CMF companies, and instead offering culturally appropriate and women centred maternity care that is free from commercial influence.
Trumping human rights
To date, trade and commerce trump women’s and children’s rights when it comes to infant and young child feeding in Australia, and internationally, indicating that transformational change to these gendered power systems is urgently needed. Key recommendations include;
- Adoption of a framework convention on commercial marketing of foods for infants and young children obliging governments to regulate industry marketing and lobbying
- Data collections which bring women’s unpaid work into visibility in economic accounting systems,
- Alignment of ILO standards on paid maternity leave with health recommendations for 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, and
- Using fiscal policy including gender budgeting approaches to fully resource comprehensive maternity rights protection, and channel greater investment into maternal infant and young child health and nutrition.
Please note: Picture at top is from Shutterstock
The post How women’s decisions about breastfeeding are made for them appeared first on BroadAgenda.
This post was originally published on BroadAgenda.
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ANALYSIS: By Ayesha Scott, Auckland University of Technology; Aaron Gilbert, Auckland University of Technology, and Candice Harris, Auckland University of Technology
Gender equity continues to be a significant problem in business globally. We all know the story: the gender pay gap is a persistent issue and female-dominated industries tend to be lower paid.
Female representation in senior leadership and board positions remains low in many countries, particularly in Aotearoa New Zealand. Women comprise only 28.5 percent of director positions across all NZX-listed companies and just 23.7 percent at companies outside of the NZX’s top 50.
Change is slow despite the well-established evidence showing the merits of improving gender equity for businesses — including better firm performance — and excellent initiatives such as Mind The Gap.
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But there is a way to support companies that have made the change towards greater gender equity — and encourage others to do the same: we can invest with a “gender lens”.
The aim of investing with a gender lens is not only to make a financial return but also to improve the lives of women by providing capital to those companies doing well on gender issues.
Gender lens investing goes beyond counting female representation at board level. It encompasses the number of female managers, leaders and employees as well as the existence of policies or products provided by a company to address the gender pay gap and other inequities faced by their female employees.
It also encourages investing in women-owned enterprises.
In essence, investing with a gender lens means identifying and investing in those companies that are empowering their female employees and embracing diversity.
This might seem simple. But there are no investment portfolios or funds investing in companies that do right by women.
One explanation for this gap is that identifying gender-friendly companies is not easy. And this is where rating agencies have a role to play.
U.N. Chief Says World Is ‘300 Years Away’ From Gender Equity And Women’s Rights Are ‘Vanishing Before Our Eyes’ https://t.co/LggXPPy79k
— Patrick F. Herlihy (@herlihy_f) March 7, 2023
The role and power of rating agencies
Over the past three decades there has been a fundamental shift towards investing for not only financial returns but also for social outcomes — so called Responsible Investing (RI).The growth in RI has spawned an industry dedicated to defining and measuring a company’s non-financial contributions across a range of areas, specifically across the environmental, social and governance (ESG) pillars.
The rating agencies build scores by collecting data on issues within each of the ESG pillars — for instance, the environmental pillar comprises data on carbon emissions, land use and water, among other measures — and then converts this into an overall score.
Fund managers, especially those managing RI funds, use these scores to inform investment decisions. What, then, are the comparable measures for gender lens investing?
While some rating agencies have created measures to identify companies suitable for a gender lens portfolio — for example, Sustainalytics has a gender equality index — others have very little on gender at all.
Some rating agencies seem to base gender equity performance on the number of women on a company’s board or its in-house policies on diversity and discrimination.
In short, there is little-to-no substantive information available to allow investing with a gender lens. And why is that?
A group of New Zealand businesses, including Skycity, Westpac, DB Breweries, Coca Cola, Xero and Kiwibank, have urged the government to address the gender pay gap.https://t.co/5Qv17tL1T4
— RNZ (@radionz) September 21, 2022
Well, rating agency MSCI states it collects information on “financially relevant ESG risks and opportunities”. Sustainalytics requires an issue to have a “substantial impact on the economic value of a company”. These agencies require an issue to affect financial performance.
Under its “social” pillar, for example, MSCI considers water usage, arguing companies in high-water-use industries face operation disruptions, higher regulation and higher costs for water, which can reduce returns and increase risk.
The absence of data related to gender implies women-friendly policies are not viewed as affecting the performance or risk of companies.
A gender lens to the rescue?
But with a bit of a push, rating agencies can help make gender equity transparent. They have the research capability and access to company data that everyday investors do not. This can help investors make informed decisions about what to invest in.Pressure from investors can also force companies to address equity issues. When that happens, the public metrics of company performance on gender issues become a lever around which companies can be encouraged to change.
Investors themselves may also find great personal satisfaction in being able to make gender-aware decisions if they could easily apply a gender lens when deciding where to invest.
It is time for potential investors to start demanding data be collected. Once that happens, rating agencies will send a message to companies that gender equity matters. As long as investors stay silent, progress will remain slow.
Dr Ayesha Scott, senior lecturer – finance, Auckland University of Technology; Aaron Gilbert, associate professor in finance, Auckland University of Technology, and Candice Harris, professor of management, Auckland University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
