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An International Law Approach to Food Regime Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2018

ANNE SAAB
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Abstract

Hunger and food insecurity are viewed as global problems, requiring global responses. Even though there is no distinct field of ‘international food law’, many areas of international law in some way deal with issues related to global hunger and food insecurity. Hunger and food insecurity are immensely complex problems that cannot possibly be understood and addressed through an inherently limited disciplinary perspective. This article argues that food regime theory – an analytical tool developed and used mostly in the field of sociology – can provide a useful means through which to better lay bare the role of international law in constituting global food relations. If international lawyers are serious about contributing to reducing global hunger and realizing food security, it is imperative to situate international law and its specialized fields within the broader political economy of food.

Keywords

food regime theoryfood securityfood sovereigntyinternational lawneoliberalism
Type
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY: Symposium on International Law and Political Economy
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 251 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2018 

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References

1 H. Bernstein, ‘Food Regimes and Food Regime Analysis: A Selective Survey’, Conference Paper No.1 at the conference Land Grabbing, Conflict and Agrarian-Environmental Transformation: Perspectives from East and Southeast Asia, Chiang Mai University, 5–6 June 2015, at 1.

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3 A number of short courses and programmes – sometimes within existing law departments – deal with international law and food, including: Alberto Allemano's Summer Academy in Global Food Law and Policy, available at www.albertoalemanno.eu/summer-academy-food-global-food-law-policy/; The Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, available at www.hls.harvard.edu/dept/clinical/clinics/food-law-and-policy-clinic-of-the-center-for-health-law-and-policy-innovation/; Michigan State University's Online Master's Degree in Global Food Law, available at www.globalfood.law.msu.edu/; the Master of Research in Food, Law and Finance, a joint academic programme between the International University College of Turin and the University of Gastronomic Science of Pollenzo, available at www.iuctorino.it/studies/m-res/.

4 See UN, ‘Key Conference Outcomes on Food’, available at www.un.org/en/development/devagenda/food.shtml.

5 Orford, supra note 2, at 6.

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10 Art. 1, Annex 2 to the Agreement on Agriculture, supra note 8. This Article sets out the requirements of so-called ‘Green Box’ subsidies.

11 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Annex 1C of the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, 1869 UNTS 299; 33 ILM 1197 (1994).

12 The relevant part of Art. 27.3(b) reads as follows: ‘Members shall provide for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof’.

13 See, for example, R. Charnas, ‘“No Patents on Life” Working Group Update’, Council for Responsible Genetics, available at www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=169; Naturland, ‘No Patents on Life!’, available at www.naturland.de/en/1838-no-patents-on-life.html; The International Coalition of ‘No Patents on Seeds’, ‘Stop Patents on Plants and Animals!’, available at www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/.

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17 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted at 21st session of the Conference of the Parties, FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1.

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20 Ibid., Figure 7.2: ‘Summary of estimates of the impact of recent climate trends on yields for four major crops’ (at 492); Figure 7.5: ‘Summary of projected changes in crop yields, due to climate change over the 21st century’ (at 504); Figure 7.7: ‘Boxplot summary of studies that quantify impact of climate and CO2 changes on crop yields, including historical and projected impacts, mean and variability of yields, and for all available crops in temperate and tropical regions’ (at 506); Box 7.1: ‘Projected Impacts for Crops and Livestock in Global Regions and Sub-Regions under Future Scenarios’ (at 509–12).

21 The words ‘technology’, ‘technologies’ or ‘technological’ are used 21 times in the text of the UNFCCC. In the Paris Agreement, the Preamble takes account of least developed countries and emphasizes the importance of funding and transfer of technologies; Art. 6(8) refers to technology transfer and capacity-building as part of the (I)NDCs; Art. 10 is entirely related to technology; and Art. 11(1) links technology transfer to capacity building for least development countries.

22 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer, Special Report prepared by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (edited by B. Metz et al., 2000). A section in Ch. 11 on agriculture is entitled: ‘Genetic Improvements Critical to Climate Adaptation’.

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38 Pechlaner, G. and Otero, G., ‘The Third Food Regime: Neoliberal Globalism and Agricultural Biotechnology in North America’, (2008) 48 Sociologica Ruralis 351, at 366CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other labels are ‘corporate food regime’ and ‘corporate-environmental food regime’. See, respectively, McMichael, P., ‘Global Development and the Corporate Food Regime’, in Buttel, F.H. and McMichael, P. (eds.) New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development (2005)Google Scholar; Friedmann, supra note 35. There are debates about whether a third food regime has been established or whether the lineaments of a third food regime are still emerging. These debates will not be addressed in this article. Whether or not a third food regime is established or still emerging, its dominant (neoliberal) features remain the same.

39 D. Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2007), at 2.

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63 Margulis, supra note 60, at 59–60.

64 Orford, supra note 2, at 10.

65 Ibid., at 11. See also Thompson, J. and Scoones, I., ‘Addressing the Dynamics of Agri-Food Systems: An Emerging Agenda for Social Science Research’ (2009) 12 Environmental Science & Policy 386, at 389CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 A.K. Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981), at 1: ‘starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat’.

67 Margulis, supra note 60, at 65.