Public food purchasing can contribute to making food systems fairer and more sustainable. This is the key message of Olivier De Schutter’s final publication as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. “Governments have few sources of leverage over increasingly globalized food systems – but public procurement is one of them. When sourcing food for schools, hospitals and public administrations, governments have a rare opportunity to support more nutritious diets and more sustainable food systems in one fell swoop,” he said on Thursday. The public sector is an important buyer of goods. OECD countries spend an average of 12% of their gross domestic products on public purchasing. The public catering sector in the UK, for example, represents some $3 billion per year. De Schutter’s report identified five principles for how governments should use the public purse to contribute to the realisation of the right to food. Public procurement policies should source preferentially from small- scale food farmers and ensure that they receive remunerative prices for their production and that farmworkers benefit from living wages. Moreover, public projects should set specific requirements for adequate food diets, source locally whenever possible, impose sustainability requirements on suppliers and increase participation and accountability in the food system. “It may cost governments slightly more to source from a range of smaller-scale, sustainable operators than from major suppliers, but the investment is worth it,” the UN expert said. The report presents positive examples such as the School Feeding Programme in Brazil, where 30% of the budget transferred to states and municipalities must be used to buy products from family farms. The budget of the programme, now covering more than 49 million children, was increased fourfold between 2003 and 2011.