Key Idea: Topic 12.3 asks who really decides what we eat and how healthy we are — the stakeholders in food and health. Its one micro pulls the whole question together: 12.3.1 — stakeholders in food and health: four groups pull in different directions — governments (laws, taxes, subsidies, public-health campaigns), TNCs / agribusiness (growing, pricing and advertising food for profit), international organisations & NGOs (the WFP, FAO, WHO, Oxfam — aid and development), and individuals & communities (daily food choices, farming, food banks). They act at different scales, from a global vaccination drive down to a family's weekly shop, and the same stakeholder can make things better or worse. This is an option topic, examined on Paper 1 (you answer 2 options at SL, 3 at HL — the same questions). Each option ends in a [10] markband essay, so most marks here come from weighing how much power each stakeholder really has — with named examples and a clear judgement.
🍽️ 12.3.1 — Who shapes food and health, and how much power they hold
No single group decides what people eat or how healthy they are. Governments, TNCs / agribusiness, IOs & NGOs and individuals all influence both food policy (what is grown, priced and advertised) and health policy (campaigns, vaccination, sanitation) — and they do it at different scales. The skill examiners test is reading a bar chart of stakeholder influence, then describing which group dominates before explaining the role of each, and finally judging their relative power in the essay.
Tip: Stakeholder influence usually arrives as a bar chart. Read the key first, then describe the pattern — name which group's bar is tallest, quote a figure with units (% of influence), and note a contrast between regions. Then explain why, and only in the essay do you weigh their relative power.
[Diagram: geo-bar-chart]
⚖️ Scale, power and the help-or-harm double edge
Stakeholders show their power most clearly in a crisis — a famine, a disease outbreak, or a push to feed a growing population. The key skill for the [10] essay is that the same stakeholder can make things better or worse, so a top answer always shows two sides and ties each to a named place.
A strong answer names the stakeholder, says what they do, gives a real example, and judges how much power they actually have compared with the others. Be ready to give an action at each scale — global (a WHO sugar-intake guideline) and local (a government sugar tax or a town's food bank) — because a frequent short question asks for exactly one of each.
On the headline TNC essay, discussing only one fast-food TNC (e.g. a single burger chain) is capped at the lower band. You must develop two or more stakeholders, or the wider influence of agribusiness — supermarkets, food processors, advertising — alongside governments, wealth, culture and the media.
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Exam Tips
- For a stakeholder bar chart: read the KEY, DESCRIBE first (tallest bar, a figure with units, a region contrast), THEN explain and weigh.
- Know all four stakeholders: governments, TNCs/agribusiness, IOs & NGOs, individuals — and what each does for FOOD and HEALTH.
- Always give an action at each SCALE — global (the WHO) and local (a sugar tax or food bank).
- The same stakeholder can help AND harm: aid saves lives but breeds dependency; agribusiness feeds millions but widens inequality.
- Anchor every point to a named example: the WFP, Oxfam, the Sahel famine, Haiti's 2010 cholera, India's Green Revolution, the UK sugar tax.
- On the [10] Examine / To-what-extent / Evaluate: develop two+ stakeholders with named examples, weigh their power, and finish with a clear judgement (a single fast-food TNC alone caps the mark).