Calling on EU Lawmakers: Include the right to a living income in the CSDDD

EU policymakers are currently negotiating a historic piece of legislation: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). It is set to require companies to screen for, and root out, socially and environmentally damaging practices in their value chains. But the draft law contains serious gaps and weaknesses; notably that companies can pass on the additional costs to those at the weakest point in the value chain – smallholder producers – and continue to profit at the expense of farmer poverty. 

That’s why we are now calling on lawmakers to not forget these non-wage workers, by recognising living income as a human right in the annex of the CSDDD. Fairfood, along with 71 CSOs and producer organisations from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, have sent a letter calling on EU member states to back proposals by the European Parliament that would require companies selling goods in Europe to conduct due diligence on living incomes in their value chains. Together with the group, we stand for true sustainability, which can’t be achieved by pushing the costs of a better world onto those at the beginning of global value chains.