Nora McKeon

Rome3 Masters in Human Development and Food Security – 2018-2019

Food Security Governance :empowering communities………………….or corporations?

14-15 March and 2 May

Food Security Governance: empowering communities, regulating corporations

14 – 15 March

Introduction to food governance

Food systems in a globalized world:

- global corporate-led food supply chains

- local food systems/food sovereignty

Who decides, on what basis ?

- from intergovernmental process to global governance

- evidence-based policy?

- the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)

- making global norms work for the vulnerable

Power

• - Who wields it?

• - To whose benefit?

• - What prospects to address powerimbalances?

• - To defend public interests?

Governance…….? By whom, of what, how, why…..actors – interests - instruments

• - All processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or network, whetherover a family tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and whether through laws, norms,power or language.’

• - ‘Processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problemthat lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions.’

• - ‘The way the rules, norms and actions are structured, sustained, regulated and held accountable.’

• - ‘Private governance: non-governmental entities, including private organizations, make rulesand/or standards which have a binding effect on the "quality of life and opportunities of the largerpublic. Private—not public—entities are making public policy.’

• - ‘Global governance: the complex of formal and informal institutions, mechanisms, relationships,and processes between and among states, markets, citizens and organizations, both inter- andnon-governmental, through which collective interests on the global plane are articulated, right andobligations are established, and differences are mediated.’

• - ‘Participatory governance: focuses on deepening democratic engagement through theparticipation of citizens in the processes of governance with the state. ‘

•

Governance of food provision in ‘pre-modern’ and non-Western societies –Augustan Rome

Governance of food provision in Augustan Rome

• - improved administration of food supplysystem

• - distribution of grain/bread

• - public control of storage against speculation.

• - incentives to bakers and ship owners.

• - improved port facilities.

• - employment opportunities for poor

• - expansion of agricultural resources underRoman control. Land-grabbing?

Governance of food provision in ‘pre-modern’ and non-Westernsocieties: Sokoto Caliphate – 19° century

Sokoto Caliphate: Food security and the moral economy

Domestic level – safety first:• - agronomic risk aversion• - intercropping• - crop experimentation• - famine foods• - secondary resources (dry season

crafts)• - domestic self-help and support

Community level – norm of reciprocity- mutual support, gift exchange- elite redistribution to poor- communal work groups

Role of the State- central granaries (based on grain tithe) allowing grain

relief.

Regional level- regional/ecological interdependence between desert and savannas- local and regional trade in foodstuffs from surfeit to deficit regions

Sokoto Caliphate: food security and the moral economy

• ‘Capitalism = an economic systemwhere the means of production arelargely or entirely privately ownedand operated for a profit, structuredon the process of capitalaccumulation through investments orprofits.

• Most countries today practice amixed capitalist system of some sortthat includes some governmentregulation of business and industry.’

‘Food regime analysis’: a political economy approach to global foodgovernance history

• Looks at how world capitalism has organized agricultures so as toprovide food for workers and consumers in ways that reduce wage costsand enhance commercial profits.

Great Britain USA Corporations

• Regimes emerge out of contests among powerful actors and socialmovements.

• They are legitimated by discourse that highlights the supposed benefitsthey bring. The rules by which they operate seem «natural» until theequilibrium breaks down.

First food regime – 1870s – 1930s

- Dominated by British state in its imperialist phase.

- Linked emergent industrial capitalism in Englandto cheap food supply zones throughout the world

- Legitimated by «free» trade ideologyand the «civilizing narrative».

First food regime – 1870s – 1930s

• Balance of interests broke down due to:

- anti-imperial movements

- inter-state rivalry and protectionism

- leading to collapse of world wheatprice

- Post WWI depression

Second food regime: 1950s – 1970s

- Dominated by U.S. state.

• - Reaction to depression and Dust Bowl

• - State-subsidized commodity production+ food aid as an outlet for surplus production.

• - Containing communist overtures to newly independent• countries + opening up their markets to food products

and Green Revolution technology.

• - Legitimated by «fight against hunger».

• - Prepares the way for fully globalizedthird food regime.

Third food regime: 1980s – 2000s

• - Dominated by agrifood corporations, with support of powerful• governments.

• - Objective = cheap food, coordinated by transnational• corporate supply chains.

• - Trade relations governed by International Financial Institutions

• - Legitimated by food security/productivity/modernization narrative.

• - Starts to break down because: not able to ensure food security (food crisis2007-2008) + high environmental costs + new players (BRICS) + strongmobilization by social movements.

Global food governance: a few lessons from history

1944: UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) bornto fight hunger, but….

1974: a world food crisis and a World Food Congress to set it straight, but….

1980s: Structural adjustment: open markets, privatize, deregulate, withdrawgovernment support for agriculture (in the developing world….)

1995: World Trade Organization makes life tougher for the Global South

2005 - WTO Doha Round grinds to a halt in Hong Kongon agriculture.

2007/2008: food price crisis

2009: reform of the Committee on World Food Security

«Food is more than acommodity……»

1948 2014

Food systems in a globalized world.

What is a ‘food system’?

‘A food system gathers allthe elements (environment,people, inputs, processes,infrastructures, institutions,etc.) and activities thatrelate to the production,processing, distribution,preparation andconsumption of food, andthe outputs of theseactivities, including socio-economic outcomes.’

p.29

‘Three types of food systems correspond roughly with the development process.

• First is a traditional food system: dominance of traditional, unorganized supply

chains and limited market infrastructure.

• Second is a structured food system: still characterized by traditional actors but

with more rules and regulations applied to marketplaces and more market

infrastructure.

• Third is an industrialized food system, as observed throughout the developed

world: with strong perceptions of safety, a high degree of coordination, a large

and consolidated processing sector and organized retailers.’

• (FAO 2008)

Thinking of food systems as chains…..

Thinking of food provisioning as a web/network….

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The confrontation isn’t between North and South, but between 2 differentapproaches to food provisioning…

• Family-based farming/local food webs…

• ….industrial agriculture/corporate food supply chains

Corporateconcentrationin the global foodsystem

Inputs

Retailers

Financial speculationand financialization

• Separate food and land fromtheir productive or use value.Economic actors who have nointerest in their real nature.

• Transformed into highlycomplex «derivatives».

• Accountability difficultto establish.

• Contribute to land grabbingand food price volatility.

Mega-mergers

Corporate structural power…..

Corporate regulatory and discursive power

Cargill

Corporate discursive power:Buying science

“While GM crops have the potential to greatly

increase crop and livestock productivity and nutrition,

a popular backlash against GM foods has created a

stringent political atmosphere under which tight

regulations are being developed. The cost of

implementing these regulations could be beyond the

reach of most African countries and tends to conflict

with the great need for increased food production.”

Global market rules that rewardcorporations

• Structural adjustment and tradeagreements have openedmarkets of the global South tounfair competition from artificiallycheap food products from abroad…

• …while OECD countries have increased subsidies to agriculture inreal terms and continue to protect their markets.

Trade and investment treaties

•

Asking the question: who benefits from global “free” trade?

• “Promoting global trade in agriculture is essential to enhancing

food security and to sustainably meeting the demand of a growing,

increasingly affluent population, projected to surpass 9 billion by mid-century.”

(Monsanto’s Global Harvest Initiative).

• “The poorest developing countries are net losers under most trade

liberalization scenarios.” (IAASTD Synthesis Report 2008 p. 65.)

• “Small farmers may not be able to participate in growing export-oriented

crops, marginalizing their position even further. The winners and losers of

open trade policies are likely to be different, and it is feared that it is often

the poor who are hurt most” (FAO).