narratives of food transition to 2050
TRANSCRIPT
Narratives of Food Transition to 2050
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance. Earth & Life Institute /Centre of Philosophy of Law
Course on Advanced Studies “Europe 2050. Trends and Challenges”Institute for European Global Studies,
University of Base Tuesday 5 April 2016
Multi-level Perspective on socio-technological transitions Geels (2002)
Exploring narratives in the landscape
Sustainability transitions are purposefully initiated / directed by people’s visions, long-term goals and narratives of transition, in a process that is often contested by different actors of the system, claiming and advocating different interests The governance of those transitions becomes an issue of clash of paradigms and power struggles
Farla et al., 2012; Berkhout, 2006; Eames et al., 2006; Weber, 2003.
THE CLASH OF PARADIGMS
IN FOOD TRANSITION
Dominant Productivist Narrative
Hegemonic in the regime: states +
corporations + UN system
Low cost food system: • a) Low food prices that do not reflect either food’s multiple
values to humans or production costs and environmental externalities,
• (b) overemphasis of hyper-caloric, unhealthy and ultra-processed food
• (c) hugely subsidised by citizen’s taxes through governments, • (d) wasted by tones in illogical - inefficient food chains• e) destructive of limited natural resources, contributing to
climate change and biodiversity reduction.
• Many eat poorly (the hungry of Global South) to enable others to eat badly & cheaply (the over-weighted of North)
Value and price of food
are two different
issues
Fair prices are not the
lowest possible for consumers
Lowest prices of wheat in recorded world history
Dominant narrative since WWII: lowering the price at any cost
1. Sustainable Intensification (science)
2. Green Growth (UN + Governments)
3. New Green Revolution (Corporate)
4. Climat-smart Agriculture (World Bank)
20
Counter-hegemonic NarrativesStruggling against current system – Building a new one
If we waste one third of total food production (wasted land, money, labourforce, energy, GHG emissions) AND
humanity is proyected to increased just 20% (from 7.2 B in 2012 to 9 B in 2050),
why do we need to increase production by 50-70%?
Academia questioning the productivist paradigm
FOOD SOVEREIGNTYBalance of PowerIncluding commons + embeddednes indigenous + women + + stewardship
Food sovereignty is the fundamental right of all peoples, nations and states to CONTROL FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS AND POLICIES, ensuring every one has adequate, affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. This requires the right to define and control our methods of production, transformation, distribution both at the local and international levels.
24
What is FOOD SOVEREIGTY?
#2. WORK IN PROGRESS BUT MATURE, plurality of meanings, academia recently engaged
#4. IDEOLOGICAL STANCE (counter-hegemonic) different from neoliberalism & alternative to industrial
food system
#1. RECENTCONCEPT (1996) fast development elaborated & lead by Vía Campesina
#3. Shared narrative between CIVIL SOCIETY claims and some STATES´ national policies Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Rep Dom
Foto: Alessandra Ferrandes
AGRO-ECOLOGY
TRANSITION MOVEMENT
Contemporary collective actions
for food (urban consumers)
Alter-hegemonic + gradual
32
Food as a commons
33
Who owns the blackberries?
34
Who owns the cherries planted in Louvain-la-Neuve?
35
Tradable Good(Commodity)
Commons
Culture
How is food regarded/valued? Mono VS Multi-dimensional Food
Human Need
Human Right
Natural resource
Food valuations to be explored
• MONO-DIMENSIONAL: economic dimensions prevail over non-economic ones.
• Value-in-exchange over value-in-use • This food concept can be regarded as a commodity.
• MULTI-DIMENSIONAL: the economic dimension, however important it may be, is not dominant over the non-economic ones.
• This food concept can be considered as a commons
38
39
Food as a new old commons
(innovative + historic, urban hipsters + rural
indigenous people)
Sustainable agricultural practices (agro-ecology) Open-source knowledge (creative commons licenses) Polycentric governance (states, enterprises, civic actions)
Social MarketEnterprisesSupply-demand Food as private good
Public
Private
Not f
or p
rofitForm
alFo
r pro
fitInform
alCollective 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 servants
Banning food speculation
Minimum free food for all citizens
Local purchaseRights-based Food
banks
41
Paradigm Shift
42
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.”
43
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
joseluisviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero [email protected]