food sovereignty social movements
TRANSCRIPT
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
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance
Module “Social Food Movements”Master Food, Law & FinanceMarch 2017 – Turin
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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 STATESBolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Rep Dom
Foto: Alessandra Ferrandes
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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 Mackenzie
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
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“FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY exists when…” Technocrats, technicians, official statements,
consensusTwin track approach (production & acces to food)
No questioning “food is a commodity” or “Balance of Power”:
ACCESS IS THE MAIN ISSUE - NO GUILTIESTHE MARKET IS BEST ALLOCATION MECHANISM
OFICIAL DEFINITION
World Food Summits
1996 & 2002Foto: FAO
ACCESS IS MAIN ISSUE NONE IS GUILTY
THE MARKET IS BEST ALLOCATION MECHANISM
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Food Sovereignt
y#8 positive
breakthroughs…EVIDENCE-BASED…
#1. FOOD is CULTURE
When produce & eat them
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Food is not a COMMODITY such as screws (ergo OUT of
WTO)
But NOT a COMMONS either? Water yes, seeds & land disputed
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The Economic Understanding of commons: Still prevailing in this movement
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#3. Family Farmers & Eaters KEY ACTORS in food systems
(not retailers, middle-men & corporations)
Foto
: Lia
nne
Milt
on
Foto: Mariano
Bonora
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#4. To revalue «RURALITY» & FAMILY
FARMING as modern and not just URBAN & INDUSTRIAL
Foto: BrazmidiaFoto: Luca5
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#5. The NATIONAL MARKET is more important than EXPORTI MARKET
(cash crops) (WDR 2008, BM) – Cultivating 4 Eating
Foto: Megan Morgavan
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#6. HUNGER & RIGHT TO FOOD & PEASANTS´ RIGHTS
recurrent in the political agenda
Foto: UNICEF
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#7. NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY re-affirmed vs
deregularised markets & non-accountable transnationals
Foto: Jose Luis Vivero
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#8. RENDER VISIBLE local CULTURES, indígenous groups, rural women & agro-
biodiversity
Fotos: Jose Luis Vivero
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#8 Elements that require further analysis & nuances
Nuanced key claims
…that may be difficult to pose within the food
sovereignty movement
Foto: Yuri Lima
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#1. Against Cash crops, exports &
neoliberal markets
Market, yes but…
Priority to national market
To cultivate for human
consumption
Strong Regulatory State that gives
primacy to people´s rights over profit
Binding Food Treaty
Foto: dflorian 1980
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#2. Against dumping
Same rules to all, not
hypocrisie
Dumping is part of state sovereignty (supporting
farmers)
Countries that can/are willing
to support their food producers
(Brazil, China, India)
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#3. Against GMOs &
Transgenics
Biotecnology is a tool for
modernization…
a. Patents/IP rights In few corporative
hands
b. Public research didn´t do its job
MORE A POLITICAL ISSUE OF CONTROL THAN A MORAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL
Foto: Edd.ie
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#4. Against biofuels
Generalizations R good for
communication but bad for
analysis
Differentiated Impacts
FOURFOLD CRISIS at same
time: Food, Energy, Environment, Democracy
Foto: Argonne National Laboratory
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#5. Against Transnational Food
Corporations
Foto: Matt G
iesbrech
They occupy niches left by Governments
They invest big money in innovative
technologies, lobby &
commercials
Big Corporations
just seek profit maximization &
not society well-being
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#6. Against Industrial
agriculture
This type (modified perhaps) will
remain with us many years
It helps producing affordable food to all (but subsidised, not nutritious, not
local, not sustainable)
Transition to better models is
COMPULSORY (less polluting,
resource-demanding, oil-
dependent)
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#7. Against State sovereignty
& in favour of people´s rights
Democracies do not represent us
Re-invent more participative
ones ¿Internet?
« Peoples » in polítics is a
fuzzy concept (boundaries)
Nation-State system still
valid, it might change though
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#8. Against rural exodus &
international migration
Migrating is not bad per se
Urbanization is unstoppable
historical trend
Enhance rural livelihoods to keep
people in rural areas
Traveling is antidote to
nationalisms & nurtures
cosmopolitanism
Foto: Dalvaou