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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

joseluisvivero@gmail.com