Purchasing More Than Just Food : What requirements should German public procurement institutions require of bidders in their food tenders to encourage fair and ethical trade?

It is widely known that minimum social standards are disregarded in the production of many everyday consumer goods (Engagement Global, 2021). This also applies to the food sector. Oxfam (2019) detected severe human, labour, and women’s rights violations in its investiga-tions and concludes that food supply chains “are in crisis” (p.3). A question that arises from this is how the demand for globally produced and traded food should be shaped to support a fair and protected work environment for the exposed employees. Concretely, this paper con-cerns what role German public procurement, such as in municipalities, can make through their tenders, to foster fair and ethical food trade