Corporate Networking: Philanthropic Foundations and the Promotion of Business Interests

• In Event: Corporate Influence on Science and Regulation – II

Abstract

In 1974, a dozen or so major companies and business associations from the food sector created a joint organisation, the Fondation française pour la nutrition (“French Nutrition Foundation”), which in 2010 became the Fonds français pour l’alimentation et la santé (“French Fund for Food and Health”). This organisation, which now claims to have approximately one hundred corporate or business association contributors, has developed several activities: not only does it use the donations it receives to fund academic research and “experimental” programmes on food behaviour, it also regularly organises a large number of social events to which academics and policymakers are invited. In a context initially marked by increasing criticism of industrial food, the rise of consumer associations and the development of new food standards and regulations (additives, labelling, etc.), the main objective of the Fondation française pour la nutrition was to surround itself with a network of scientists and policymakers. The latter were to help manufacturers respond to or anticipate criticism and to ensure that the standards developed in regulatory arenas took their interests into account. Using the Fondation française pour la nutrition’s internal archives and publications, this article will study the work that its directors have carried out to build and maintain this network. More broadly, it will attempt to analyse the specific role played by this type of organisation, the activities of which are officially oriented towards the general interest and not lobbying, to defend companies’ interests in the eyes of public authorities.

Authors

• Marc-Olivier Déplaude, French National Institute for Agricultural research

• Nicolas Larchet, Université du Havre

• Thomas Depecker, French National Institute for Agricultural research