food: commodity, human right or common good? implications for hunger eradication
DESCRIPTION
Our body compulsory demands food, water and air to keep its vital functions and yet their economic nature is rather diverse with food mostly considered a private good, water suffering an accelerated privatization process and air so far considered a global common good. Food has evolved from a common good and local resource to a national asset and then to a transnational commodity as the commodification process is rather completed nowadays. Cultivated food is fully privatized and this consideration means that human beings can eat food as long as they have money to but it or means to produce it. With the dominant no money-no food rationality, hunger still prevails in a world of abundance. In order to provide a sound foundation for the transition towards sustainable food systems, the very nature of food as a pure private good is contested and subsequently reversed in this paper, proposing a re-conceptualisation of food as a common good, a necessary narrative for the redesign of the dominating agro-industrial food system that merely sees food as a tradable commodity. This aspirational transition shall lead us to a more sustainable, fairer and farmer-centred food system. The idea of the commons is applied to food, deconstructing food as a pure private good and reconstructing it as an impure commons that can be better produced and distributed by a hybrid tri-centric governance system compounded by market rules, public regulations and collective actions. Several food-related elements are already considered as common goods (i.e. fish stocks, wild fruits, cuisine recipes, agricultural knowledge, food safety regulations and unpatented genetic resources) as well as food’s implications (hunger eradication) and benefits (public health and good nutrition). Should food and be consider as a commons, the implications for the governance of the global food system would be enormous, with examples ranging from placing food outside the framework agreements dealing with pure private goods, banning financial speculation on food commodities or preparing international binding agreements to govern the production, distribution and access of food to every human being.TRANSCRIPT
HAMBRE Y MALNUTRICIÓN EN AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE
Datos de hambre
Food as a Commodity, Human Right or Common Good? Implications for Hunger Eradication
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Candidate in Food Governance
Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
2
PRIMUM VIVERE DEINDE PHILOSOPHARE
#4. The 5th dimension: FOOD AS A COMMONS
#2. 3 APPROACHES, 5 DIMENSIONS to Food
#1. The FAILURE of the Global Food System
#3. The RIGHT TO FOOD is progressing
3
AIR
WATER
FOOD
SUNLIGHT
OUR HOME
1 000
919
898
867 868
65
60
54
50 49
40
50
60
70
80
800
900
1 000
1990-1992 1999-2001 2004-2006 2007-2009 2010-2012
Mundo (Eje izquierdo) América Latina y el Caribe (Eje derecho)
Millions
Fuente: FAO.
Evolution of Hunger figures in the world and in LAC between 1990-1992 y 2010-2012.
6
2.3 BILLION MALNOURISHED PEOPLE – WE EAT BADLY
3.1 million children die of hunger-related diseases2.8 million people die of overweight-related diseases
868 MILLION HUNGRY
HUNGER DAMAGES THE BRAIN
Malnourished child brain
Well nourished child brain
8
STU
NTIN
G d
uri
ng
fir
st
thre
e y
ears
is
IRR
EV
ER
SIB
LE
Well-nourished child
neurone
Malnourished Child
Neurone
9
165 million stunted children
19 million severely wasted children
Hunger is largest contributor (45%) to child mortality
1.4 BILLION OVERWEIGHT300 MILLION OBESE
10
WASTED FOOD (33%) 1.3 billion tonnes (to feed 600 million hungry people)
The food industry is the 2nd biggest: A BIG CAKE (10% GDP & 5 trillion USD in 2009)
12
Planetary Boundaries
Climate Change
Oil Peak
Radical changeUK GovIAASTD
Business as usualIncrease productivityImprove access
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Food dimensions
Approaches to food systems
Food dimensions
Commodity
Human Right
Commons
Human Need
Culture
Food as a commons
The Globalised
Industrial Food
System
a. Post-industrial
Food Civic
Actions
b. Customary
Food Civic
Actions
Food as a commodity
16
“FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY exists when…” Technocrats, technicians, official statements, consensus
Twin track approach (production & acces to food)No questioning food is a commodity:
ACCESS IS THE MAIN ISSUE
OFICIAL DEFINITION
World Food Summits
1996 & 2002Foto: FAO
17
THE RIGHT TO FOOD is a right (duties and entitlements). States must respect, protect & fulfill
As a legal approach, it does not question the proprietary rights, specially the private property right (a sacred pillar of capitalism).
ICESCR is a
binding agreement for 156 states
Justiciable
Foto: Jorge Salamanca
18
Food Security Laws in LAC
19
Latin America is at the forefrontof the Right to Food in the world
• 17 countries have laws or drafts in Parliaments• 7 countries have Food Security Laws + México DF• Active and demanding Civil Society • Human Rights Procuradurias producing national
reports (Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia)• Constitutional amendments: Ecuador (2009),
Brasil (2010), México (2012). El Salvador & Colombia are coming
20
What is FOOD SOVEREIGNTY?
#2. WORK IN PROGRESS, weak academic/UN support
#4. Alternative to the industrial oil-dependant
food system
#1. RECENT CONCEPT (1996) quickly evolving, formulated by Vía Campesina
#3. Common paradigm of CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL & some STATES
Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Rep Dom
Foto: Alessandra Ferrandes
21
EVOLUTIONFrom an anti-establishment and combative position to a viable alternative to tackle current flaws of the post-industrial food system, plus hunger, climate change and energy
IDEOLOGICAL & propositive: the ONLY option B
Foto
: Ian
Macken
zie
Foto
: FAO
Producers and
Consumers shall regain control of the national food systems. Producing and comsuming food is a cultural issue
No to TNC control over
our food (Henry
Kissinger)
Foto: Jose Luis Vivero
Foto: Dedalus1947
23
Food is not a COMMODITY such as screws (ergo OUT of
WTO)
24
Private & Common Goods: Rivalry & Excludability
25
De-constructing Food-related Elements: everything is commons but cultivated food and copyrighted patents
26
1. Cultivated Food is a
private good
Completly produced by
private means: private
landholdings, copyrighted
seeds and agro-chemicals,
machineries
27
2. Traditional agricultural knowledge
Foto
s: Jo
se L
uis
V
ivero
28
3. Science-based agricultural
knowledge by national institutions
Public copyrightsUniversities
National Research
Institutions
Foto: Argonne National Laboratory
29
4. Cuisine, recipes & national
gastronomy
Foto
: Carla
B
qn
eko
30
5. Edible wild plants and animals
31
6. Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture
Seeds are commons
Patents prevent innovation
(Benkler, 2006)
Fashion world and top cuisine are
rather innovative without patenting
systems
ITPGRFA made seeds a global common good
Fo
to: E
dd
.ie
32
7. Food safety considerations (Codex
Alimentarius)
Foto
: Lia
nn
e
Mil
ton
Foto
: Maria
no
Bon
ora
33
8. Good nutrition & public health
34
9. Extreme food price fluctuations
Foto: Megan Morgavan
35
What if food is
considered a commons…
Banning futures trade speculation
Controlling land grabbing, land
evictions
Binding Food Treaties
Legislating collective rights
Avoiding biopiracy, patenting of life
forms,
Minimising copyrighted agriculture
Combating oligopolies of agri-food chains
36
Tri-centric Governance of Food SystemsCIVIC COLLECTIVE ACTIONS
GOVERNMENTAL
REGULATIONS
PRIVATE SEC
TOR
MAR
KET RU
LES
37
DE-COMMODIFICATION & RE-COMMONIFICATION OF FOOD
Foto
: Jose L
uis
V
ivero
The way we approach food will determine the way we´ll shape our future food system.
Fuente FAO: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/es/1. La Agricultura en un contexto global
Food is a human right and a commons!
And I thank you for your time and interest
40
I am more than happy to exchange with anyone interested in hunger
eradication & food as a commons
Any comment is welcomed
@joselviveropol
joseluisviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero Pol