Date post: | 05-Dec-2014 |
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Food as a CommonsReframing the narrative of the food system
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance
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Food is essential for human life
Access to food cannot be exclusively determined by
the purchasing power
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The commodification of food is a social
construct that can and shall be
reconceived
WHY?
Foto: Finabocci Blue Flickr Creative Commons
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AIR
WATERFOOD
Food is fully privatizedWater is in the process
Air is a global public good but… for how long?
Private or public goods?
Commodity
Commons
Culture
Food dimensionsHuman Need
Human Right
Natural resource
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The dominant narrative of the
INDUSTRIAL FOOD SYSTEM
Foto: Patty´s Flickr Creative Commons
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Only the economic dimensionObjectification & commodification of food, depriving & neglecting the other dimensions
Every food has a priceMaximizing profit not nutrition (exchange value)
Food is rival & excludable Economic concept VS political concept
Food access is the main problemAmple consensus in science & policy makers: access is limited by price, law & property
Many food-related aspects are commons genetic resources, recipes, food safety, public research, fish stocks, wild fruits, price stability
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Food System Paradoxes
FOOD PRODUCERS STAY HUNGRY868 million hungry people, or more (SPI 2013) 70% are food producers
FOOD KILLS PEOPLE Food-related diseases are a primary cause of death (6.8 M deaths per year).
FOOD IS (INCREASINGLY) NOT FOR HUMANS 47.4% of food for human consumption,
FOOD IS WASTED 1.3 billion tons end up in the garbage every year (1/3 of global food production) enough to feed 600 million hungry people.
Foto: Fringe Hoj Flickr Creative Commons
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The actual way of producing, distributing
and eating food is unsustainable and it
cannot be maintained as a such for the next 50
years IAASTD (2008)
UNEP (2009)
UNCTAD (2013)UK Foresight (2011)
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Planetary Boundaries
Climate Change
Population growth
Changing diets
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The TRANSITION towards a fairer & more sustainable food system needs a different narrative
Recognizing & valuing the multiple dimensions of food = FOOD AS A COMMONS
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Industrial Food System Food Commons System
Mono-dimensional Food as a commodity (value in exchange)
Multi-dimensional Food as a commons (value in use)
TRANSITION
Growing web of alternative
food collective actions
MarketEnterprisesSupply-demand Food as private good
Public
Private
Not f
or p
rofitForm
alFo
r pro
fitInform
al
Collective actionsCommunitiesReciprocityFood as common good
StateRedistribution Citizens welfareFood as public good
Tri-centric Governance of Food Systems
- Promoting collective actions by incentives,
subsidies, - Enabling legal
frameworks-Limiting privatization of
commons- Farmers as civil
servants- Minimum free food for
all citizens- Banning food
speculation
Fuente FAO: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/es/1. La Agricultura en un contexto global
NEXT STEPS
1. Clearinghouses for co-generation of
“food commons” knowledge
2. Knitting the Food web: reflexive/adaptive governance
3. Mapping initiatives (Collective Actions for Food)
4. Spaces for dialogue: to open up niches and avoiding parochialism
NO Blueprints
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The Re-Commonification of
Food will take generations
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Considering FOOD as a COMMONS may be utopical…But is the right thing to do and the best goal to aspire
Eduardo Galeano Uruguayan writer and activist
“Utopia lies at the horizon.When I draw nearer by two steps,it retreats two steps.No matter how far I go, I can never reach it.What, then, is the purpose of utopia?It is to cause us to advance.”
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I am eager to exchange on hunger eradication & food as
a commonsMany uncertainties & gaps remain to be develop in a
common way
@joselviveropol
joseluisviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero Pol