Benjamin Wood
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3789488 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Benjamin Wood |
| NOMBRES | Benjamin |
| APELLIDO | Wood |
| FIRMA | WOOD B |
| AFILIACIONES | Deakin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8072-9066 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 27 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 8 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 27 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2010 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Ultra-Processed Food ‘Fetishism’ is Undermining Efforts Seeking Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Diets Globally
Calls have been growing for government interventions to address diets high in ultra-processed foods (i.e., ultra-processed diets), which are associated with a large and rising burden of preventable death and disease. To date, however, government action relating to ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has been mostly insufficient. In this paper, we argue that one of the key reasons behind this lacklustre response has been the dominance of ‘UPF fetishism’ …
Capitalising (on) industrial epidemics
In recent decades, the Big Three asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) have emerged to be among the top shareholders in thousands of listed companies worldwide. Accordingly, they have considerable influence on corporate decision-making. This paper aimed to examine the influence of the Big Three on the governance of leading corporations in key health-harming commodity industries responsible for a large burden of preventable death and …
How has the global food governance system evolved, and what challenges does it currently pose for food systems transformation? A narrative review and synthesis of the literature
BACKGROUND: Transformative change in the global food governance (GFG) system is essential to address the interlinked crises of non-communicable diseases, social inequities, and environmental degradation that collectively undermine global health and sustainable development. However, this transformation agenda raises important questions regarding how powerful actors and interests, entrenched institutions and institutional legacies, and dominant ide…
Personal Transformation Among Ingo Beneficiaries
Funders increasingly challenge INGOs in developing countries to provide evidence of their impact. While economic impact is often documented, the social impact on participants has received less attention. To understand INGOs’ social impact, we conducted a case study of Heifer International’s Values-Based Holistic Community Development program in Honduras. Based on interviews with 100 participants, our analysis shows that beneficiaries experience p…
Public policies addressing unhealthy diets in the South-East Asia region
In South-East Asia, government implementation of policies recommended for addressing unhealthy diets has generally been slow and fragmented, largely due to food industry opposition and a lack of effective cross-sectoral policy action. To help government policy-makers and other interest-holders address these issues, this study aimed to identify key arguments that undermine implementation of policies for addressing unhealthy diets in the region, an…
Private finance and the threat to global health
The expansion of private finance in global health is pronounced
Global market trends and financial performance of the corporate fast-food industry and their potential contributions to diets high in meat and ultra-processed foods
BACKGROUND: The fast-food industry has transformed substantially in recent decades - from diverse, locally rooted providers into a globalised, and increasingly corporate-led industry. Corporate fast-food retailers (FFRs) represent a key retail channel through which both ultra-processed foods and intensively produced animal source foods are consumed and normalised within corporate-industrial food systems. These dietary patterns are strongly associ…
Exploring the commercial determinants of health in the online food delivery sector
Exploring the commercial determinants of health in the online food delivery sector: a case study of Uber Eats in Australia
Health in the age of asset manager capitalism
A relatively small number of for-profit asset managers—financial intermediaries that invest capital on behalf of other investors—have emerged in recent decades to become some of the most influential commercial actors in the global political economy. Despite their important role in society, asset managers have received little attention from a public health perspective. In this article, we aimed to propose a conceptual framework of potential pathwa…
Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance
BACKGROUND: A major challenge to transforming food systems to promote human health and sustainable development is the global rise in the manufacture and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). A key driver of this dietary transition is the globalization of UPF corporations, and their organized corporate political activity (CPA) intended to counter opposition and block government regulation. UPF industry CPA and the corporate interest groups …
Protecting whose welfare? A document analysis of competition regulatory decisions in four jurisdictions across three harmful consumer product industries
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Competition regulation has a strong influence on the relative market power of firms. As such, competition regulation can complement industry-specific measures designed to address harms associated with excessive market power in harmful consumer product industries. This study aimed to examine, through a public health lens, assessments and decisions made by competition authorities in four jurisdictions (Australia, South Afric…
The rise of multi-stakeholderism, the power of ultra-processed food corporations, and the implications for global food governance
The rise of multi-stakeholder institutions (MIs) involving the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry has raised concerns among food and public health scholars, especially with regards to enhancing the legitimacy and influence of transnational food corporations in global food governance (GFG) spaces. However, few studies have investigated the governance composition and characteristics of MIs involving the UPF industry, nor considered the implication…
The influence of share buybacks on ill-health and health inequity
INTRODUCTION: Share buybacks, when a corporation buys back its own shares, are recognised as having potentially harmful impacts on society. This includes by contributing to economic inequalities, and by impeding investments with the potential to protect and promote the welfare of various stakeholders. Share buybacks, however, have received minimal analytical attention in the public health literature. This paper aimed to explore the potential infl…
The structure of the Canadian packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing and grocery retailing sectors through a public health lens
BACKGROUND: Corporate power has been recognized as an important influence on food environments and population health more broadly. Understanding the structure of national food and beverage markets can provide important insight into the power held by leading corporations. This study aimed to descriptively analyze the structure of the Canadian food and beverage manufacturing and grocery retailing sectors as of 2020/21. METHODS: Packaged food manufa…
Strategies used by the soft drink industry to grow and sustain sales
BACKGROUND: The market and non-market activities of the food and beverage industry contribute to unhealthy and unsustainable dietary patterns, increasingly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to describe how The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), as the world market leader in the sugar-sweetened beverage sector, operationalises their activities in LMICs in East Asia, among the world's most highly populated yet under-researched coun…
Maximising the wealth of few at the expense of the health of many
BACKGROUND: Many of the harms created by the global soft drink industry that directly influence human and planetary health are well documented. However, some of the ways in which the industry indirectly affects population health, via various socio-economic pathways, have received less attention. This paper aimed to analyse the extent to which market power and corporate wealth and income distribution in the global soft drink market negatively impa…
The influence of corporate market power on health
We argue that the SCP model is well-placed to broaden public health research into the ways in which corporations influence health. In addition, the development of a comprehensive framework based on the key findings of this paper could help the public health community to better engage with a set of policy and regulatory tools that have the potential to curb the concentration of corporate power for the betterment of population health
Globalization, first-foods systems transformations and corporate power
BACKGROUND: The global milk formula market has 'boomed' in recent decades, raising serious concerns for breastfeeding, and child and maternal health. Despite these developments, few studies have investigated the global expansion of the baby food industry, nor the market and political practices corporations have used to grow and sustain their markets. In this paper, our aim is to understand the strategies used by the baby food industry to shape 'f…
Market strategies used by processed food manufacturers to increase and consolidate their power
The double burden of maldistribution
The health and ecological harms created and spread by firms active in many unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) have received considerable attention from the public health community. However, less focus has been paid to analysing the distribution of wealth and income – important social and economic determinants of health – by these industries. This study aimed to examine long-term trends in wealth and income distribution by publicly listed corpo…
Benefits and Challenges of Using a Participatory Approach with Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions in Displaced Populations
The mental health burden of displaced communities is enormous and ever-increasing. Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB-MHPSS) interventions are seen as vital in addressing this challenge, and they have been lauded as being integral in the overall multi-level Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Intervention approach in humanitarian settings. This article assumes that CB-MHPSS innately require a participatory approach to t…
How Coca-Cola Shaped the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health
There is currently limited direct evidence of how sponsorship of scientific conferences fits within the food industry's strategy to shape public policy and opinion in its favour. This paper provides an analysis of emails between a vice-president of The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) and prominent public health figures in relation to the 2012 and 2014 International Congresses of Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH). Contrary to Coke's prepared p…
Targeting Children and Their Mothers, Building Allies and Marginalising Opposition
The study provides direct evidence of the goals of food-industry-driven public relations (PR) campaigns. Two PR requests for proposals created for The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) were analysed. One campaign related to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the other related to the 2013-2014 Movement is Happiness campaign. Supplementary data were obtained from a search of business literature. The study found that Coke specifically targeted teenagers and their m…
The decay of Western liberalism and the Christological alternative
Recent election results across the Western world have seen the resurgence of authoritarian and nativist forms of politics. Key shibboleths of liberal democracy have come under fierce attack from burgeoning populist movements. Calls for a return to homogenous national identities and firm lines of cultural belonging increasingly eclipse values of social openness, pluralism and multiculturalism. In such a febrile atmosphere, it might be legitimate t…
Coming to Terms with a Monk’s Seduction
Benefits and Challenges of Using a Participatory Approach with Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions in Displaced Populations
The mental health burden of displaced communities is enormous and ever-increasing. Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB-MHPSS) interventions are seen as vital in addressing this challenge, and they have been lauded as being integral in the overall multi-level Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Intervention approach in humanitarian settings. This article assumes that CB-MHPSS innately require a participatory approach to t…
Poverty effects of food price escalation
The decay of Western liberalism and the Christological alternative
Recent election results across the Western world have seen the resurgence of authoritarian and nativist forms of politics. Key shibboleths of liberal democracy have come under fierce attack from burgeoning populist movements. Calls for a return to homogenous national identities and firm lines of cultural belonging increasingly eclipse values of social openness, pluralism and multiculturalism. In such a febrile atmosphere, it might be legitimate t…
Development, refinement, and psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward God Scale (ATGS-9)
Perceived relationships with God can be a source of comfort or struggle. To advance the study of spiritual comfort and struggle, we develop the nine-item Attitudes toward God Scale (ATGS-9), and we describe six studies (2,992 total participants) reporting its development and psychometrics. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified two factors: (1) Positive Attitudes toward God and (2) Disappointment and Anger with God. Subscale scor…
Poverty effects of food price escalation
Coming to Terms with a Monk’s Seduction
The decay of Western liberalism and the Christological alternative
Recent election results across the Western world have seen the resurgence of authoritarian and nativist forms of politics. Key shibboleths of liberal democracy have come under fierce attack from burgeoning populist movements. Calls for a return to homogenous national identities and firm lines of cultural belonging increasingly eclipse values of social openness, pluralism and multiculturalism. In such a febrile atmosphere, it might be legitimate t…
Targeting Children and Their Mothers, Building Allies and Marginalising Opposition
The study provides direct evidence of the goals of food-industry-driven public relations (PR) campaigns. Two PR requests for proposals created for The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) were analysed. One campaign related to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the other related to the 2013-2014 Movement is Happiness campaign. Supplementary data were obtained from a search of business literature. The study found that Coke specifically targeted teenagers and their m…
How Coca-Cola Shaped the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health
There is currently limited direct evidence of how sponsorship of scientific conferences fits within the food industry's strategy to shape public policy and opinion in its favour. This paper provides an analysis of emails between a vice-president of The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) and prominent public health figures in relation to the 2012 and 2014 International Congresses of Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH). Contrary to Coke's prepared p…
Maximising the wealth of few at the expense of the health of many
BACKGROUND: Many of the harms created by the global soft drink industry that directly influence human and planetary health are well documented. However, some of the ways in which the industry indirectly affects population health, via various socio-economic pathways, have received less attention. This paper aimed to analyse the extent to which market power and corporate wealth and income distribution in the global soft drink market negatively impa…
The influence of corporate market power on health
We argue that the SCP model is well-placed to broaden public health research into the ways in which corporations influence health. In addition, the development of a comprehensive framework based on the key findings of this paper could help the public health community to better engage with a set of policy and regulatory tools that have the potential to curb the concentration of corporate power for the betterment of population health
Globalization, first-foods systems transformations and corporate power
BACKGROUND: The global milk formula market has 'boomed' in recent decades, raising serious concerns for breastfeeding, and child and maternal health. Despite these developments, few studies have investigated the global expansion of the baby food industry, nor the market and political practices corporations have used to grow and sustain their markets. In this paper, our aim is to understand the strategies used by the baby food industry to shape 'f…
Market strategies used by processed food manufacturers to increase and consolidate their power
The double burden of maldistribution
The health and ecological harms created and spread by firms active in many unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) have received considerable attention from the public health community. However, less focus has been paid to analysing the distribution of wealth and income – important social and economic determinants of health – by these industries. This study aimed to examine long-term trends in wealth and income distribution by publicly listed corpo…
Benefits and Challenges of Using a Participatory Approach with Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions in Displaced Populations
The mental health burden of displaced communities is enormous and ever-increasing. Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB-MHPSS) interventions are seen as vital in addressing this challenge, and they have been lauded as being integral in the overall multi-level Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Intervention approach in humanitarian settings. This article assumes that CB-MHPSS innately require a participatory approach to t…
Strategies used by the soft drink industry to grow and sustain sales
BACKGROUND: The market and non-market activities of the food and beverage industry contribute to unhealthy and unsustainable dietary patterns, increasingly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to describe how The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), as the world market leader in the sugar-sweetened beverage sector, operationalises their activities in LMICs in East Asia, among the world's most highly populated yet under-researched coun…
The influence of share buybacks on ill-health and health inequity
INTRODUCTION: Share buybacks, when a corporation buys back its own shares, are recognised as having potentially harmful impacts on society. This includes by contributing to economic inequalities, and by impeding investments with the potential to protect and promote the welfare of various stakeholders. Share buybacks, however, have received minimal analytical attention in the public health literature. This paper aimed to explore the potential infl…
The structure of the Canadian packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing and grocery retailing sectors through a public health lens
BACKGROUND: Corporate power has been recognized as an important influence on food environments and population health more broadly. Understanding the structure of national food and beverage markets can provide important insight into the power held by leading corporations. This study aimed to descriptively analyze the structure of the Canadian food and beverage manufacturing and grocery retailing sectors as of 2020/21. METHODS: Packaged food manufa…
Health in the age of asset manager capitalism
A relatively small number of for-profit asset managers—financial intermediaries that invest capital on behalf of other investors—have emerged in recent decades to become some of the most influential commercial actors in the global political economy. Despite their important role in society, asset managers have received little attention from a public health perspective. In this article, we aimed to propose a conceptual framework of potential pathwa…
Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance
BACKGROUND: A major challenge to transforming food systems to promote human health and sustainable development is the global rise in the manufacture and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). A key driver of this dietary transition is the globalization of UPF corporations, and their organized corporate political activity (CPA) intended to counter opposition and block government regulation. UPF industry CPA and the corporate interest groups …
Protecting whose welfare? A document analysis of competition regulatory decisions in four jurisdictions across three harmful consumer product industries
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Competition regulation has a strong influence on the relative market power of firms. As such, competition regulation can complement industry-specific measures designed to address harms associated with excessive market power in harmful consumer product industries. This study aimed to examine, through a public health lens, assessments and decisions made by competition authorities in four jurisdictions (Australia, South Afric…
The rise of multi-stakeholderism, the power of ultra-processed food corporations, and the implications for global food governance
The rise of multi-stakeholder institutions (MIs) involving the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry has raised concerns among food and public health scholars, especially with regards to enhancing the legitimacy and influence of transnational food corporations in global food governance (GFG) spaces. However, few studies have investigated the governance composition and characteristics of MIs involving the UPF industry, nor considered the implication…
Private finance and the threat to global health
The expansion of private finance in global health is pronounced
Global market trends and financial performance of the corporate fast-food industry and their potential contributions to diets high in meat and ultra-processed foods
BACKGROUND: The fast-food industry has transformed substantially in recent decades - from diverse, locally rooted providers into a globalised, and increasingly corporate-led industry. Corporate fast-food retailers (FFRs) represent a key retail channel through which both ultra-processed foods and intensively produced animal source foods are consumed and normalised within corporate-industrial food systems. These dietary patterns are strongly associ…
Exploring the commercial determinants of health in the online food delivery sector
Exploring the commercial determinants of health in the online food delivery sector: a case study of Uber Eats in Australia
Ultra-Processed Food ‘Fetishism’ is Undermining Efforts Seeking Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Diets Globally
Calls have been growing for government interventions to address diets high in ultra-processed foods (i.e., ultra-processed diets), which are associated with a large and rising burden of preventable death and disease. To date, however, government action relating to ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has been mostly insufficient. In this paper, we argue that one of the key reasons behind this lacklustre response has been the dominance of ‘UPF fetishism’ …
Capitalising (on) industrial epidemics
In recent decades, the Big Three asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street) have emerged to be among the top shareholders in thousands of listed companies worldwide. Accordingly, they have considerable influence on corporate decision-making. This paper aimed to examine the influence of the Big Three on the governance of leading corporations in key health-harming commodity industries responsible for a large burden of preventable death and …
How has the global food governance system evolved, and what challenges does it currently pose for food systems transformation? A narrative review and synthesis of the literature
BACKGROUND: Transformative change in the global food governance (GFG) system is essential to address the interlinked crises of non-communicable diseases, social inequities, and environmental degradation that collectively undermine global health and sustainable development. However, this transformation agenda raises important questions regarding how powerful actors and interests, entrenched institutions and institutional legacies, and dominant ide…
Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology (16 obras) · Business (14 obras) · Political science (11 obras) · Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling (9 obras) · Medicine (9 obras) · Public health (8 obras) · Corporate governance (7 obras) · Marketing (7 obras) · Politics (7 obras) · Economics (6 obras)