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JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance
FOOD COMMONS A disruptive narrative
and moral compass for human survival
Lecture in Graduate Course on Sustainable Development and Corporate Responsibility, EOI Business School (Madrid, 31 Janvier 2017)
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Consideration of food as commodity is social construct that can / shall be
reconceived
WHY?Foto: Finabocci Blue Flickr Creative Commons
Paradigm Shift
Food system is the greatest driver of Earth transformation
• Food systems accounts for 48% of land use• 70% of water use • 33% of total GHG emissions • 40% relies on agriculture for their livelihood • Phosphorus & Nitrogen exceeded Planetary
Boundaries
(Ivanova et al., 2015, Clapp, 2012)
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The actual way of producing & eating
(western diets & industrial food system)
is unsustainableIt cannot be maintained
for the next 50 years IAASTD (2008)
UNEP (2009)
UNCTAD (2013)UK Foresight (2011)
The way we produce and eat food will greatly determine the likelihood of human presence on this planet
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PRIMUM VIVERE DEINDE PHILOSOPHARE
#1. Definitions and schools of thought on the commons
#3. The PARADOXES of the Global Food System
#2. Defining FOOD AS A COMMONS: normative social construct
#4. How to scale up INNOVATIVE & CUSTOMARY food alternatives
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Commons are material / non-material resources, jointly developed and maintained by a community/society and shared according to community-defined rules, irrespective of their mode of production (private, public or commons-based means), because they benefit everyone and are fundamental to society’s wellbeing
8Photo: ukhvlid, Creative Commons, Flickr
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Economic School: reductionist + theoretical
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25% of Galicia is onwed in communal property
Private property
Legal School
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AIR
WATER
FOOD
SUNLIGHT
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The six food dimensions relevant to humans: multi-dimensional food as commons VS mono-dimensional food as commodity
Source: Vivero-Pol (in press). http://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201701.0073/v1
Food as a commodity mono-dimensional approach whereby economic dimension of food prevails and overshadows non-economic dimensions.
Price (value-in-exchange)
13Photo: Dean Hochman, Flickr
Food as a commons means revalorising different dimensions relevant to human beings (value-in use) & reducing the commodity dimension (value-in exchange)
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Food commons are what a society does collectively, through private, state and self-regulated provision, to guarantee everybody eats adequately in quantity and quality everyday
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Food is essential for human life…
… so access to food cannot be exclusively determined by the purchasing power
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The paradoxes of the INDUSTRIAL FOOD SYSTEM
Foto: Patty´s Flickr Creative Commons
The food industry is the 2nd biggest: A BIG CAKE (10% GDP & 7 trillion USD in 2015)
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800 MILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE
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157 million chronically malnourished
19 million severely wasted children
HUNGER is largest contributor (35%) to child mortality
1.4 BILLION OVERWEIGHT(300 MILLION OBESE)
2.3 BILLION MALNOURISHED PEOPLE – WE EAT BADLY
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EU Food Charity
Non universal
Non accountable
Non demandable
No right holders and duty bearers
Money-restricted
3.8 Billion € in 7 years
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HUNGER IN THE US
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Food System Paradoxes FOOD PRODUCERS STAY HUNGRY800 million hungry people, or more (SPI 2013) 70% are food producers FOOD KILLS PEOPLE Food-related diseases are a primary cause of death (6.5 M deaths per year). FOOD IS (INCREASINGLY) NOT FOR HUMANS 47% 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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Only the economic dimensionObjectification & commodification of food,
depriving & neglecting the other dimensions
Every food has a priceMaximizing profit not nutrition
(value in exchange dissociated from value in use)
Food is rival & excludable Economic concept VS political, legal and
historical approaches
Food access is the main problemAmple consensus in science & policy makers:
access is limited by price, law & property
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Planetary Boundaries
Climate Change
Oil Peak
Radical changeUK GovIAASTD
Business as usualIncrease productivityImprove access
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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
TRANSITION MOVEMENT
Contemporary collective actions
for food (urban consumers)
Alter-hegemonic + gradual
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FOOD SOVEREIGNTYMostly rural food producers (family farms), Valuing multiple dimensions (food is NOT a commons)Customary commons-based food systems
Ideological counter-hegemomic struggle
Foto: Ian Mackenzie
Foto: FAO
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Food as a new old commons (innovative + historic)
Sustainable agricultural practices (agro-ecology) Open-source knowledge (creative commons licenses) Polycentric governance (states, enterprises, civic actions)
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If we could imagine a good food system, how would it be?
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Social MarketEnterprisesSupply-demand Food as private good
Public
Private
Not f
or p
rofitForm
alFo
r pro
fitInform
al
Collective actionsCommunitiesReciprocityFood as common good
Partner StateRedistribution Citizens welfareFood as public good
Tri-centric Governance of Food Commons
Systems
Incentives, subsidies, Enabling legal frameworks
Limiting privatization of commons
Farmers as civil servantsBanning food speculation
Minimum free food for all citizens
Local purchaseRights-based Food
banks
Proposals for an EUCOMMON
FOOD POLICY
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To guarantee school meals for all
students in public schools
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To support local purchase (small farming, agro-ecology & cooperatives) to satisfy food needs of municipal premises 37
Stricter & innovative rules to avoid food waste
To recycle all expired food (i.e. France)
Supporting citizens´ collective
actions to reduced waste, promote food sharing
and co-producing38
Shifting from charitable food (Food Banks) to food as right (Universal Food Coverage)
A food bank network that is universal, accountable, compulsory and not voluntary, random, targeted
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Compulsory rooftop greening for every new building (with edibles, non-edibles)
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Establishing bakeries where every citizen can get access to a bread loaf every day (if needed or willing to)
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Encourage Food Policy Councils (open
membership to citizens) through participatory
democracies, financial seed capital and enabling
laws42
Set target for food provisioning in 2030 (Food Council)
• 60% private sector• 25% self-production (collective
actions) • 15% state-provisioning (public
buildings, destitute people, unemployed families) through Universal Food Coverage
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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 food as a commons
Many uncertainties & gaps remain to be developed in a
common way combining praxis with normative social
constructs
@joselviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero Pol