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Rethinking Food Systems pp 165–193Cite as

International Economic Law and the Right to Food

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Abstract

Food insecurity is a product of poverty rather than food scarcity. Its origins lie in economic policies that undermine the livelihoods of small farmers in developing countries and exacerbate North-South inequality. This chapter examines the historic and contemporary practices that contribute to food insecurity in the global South, and analyzes the role of international economic law in perpetuating these practices. The chapter concludes with a variety of concrete measures that the international community might take through law and policy to promote the fundamental human right to food.

Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law. This chapter is an expanded and updated version of an earlier article that was published in the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal. See Carmen G. Gonzalez, The Global Food Crisis: Law, Policy, and the Elusive Quest for Justice, 13 Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. L.J. 462 (2010).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A, at 71, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st plen. Mtg., U.N. Doc A/10, art. 25 (Dec. 12, 1948); United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 24 & 27, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3 (Nov. 20, 1989); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), G.A. Res. 2200A, art. 11 (Dec. 16, 1966), reprinted in 6 I.L.M. 360 (1967).

  2. 2.

    See U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009, 11 (2009) [hereinafter FAO, STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY 2009] (estimating the number of malnourished people at 1.02 billion in 2009); U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD 2010, 9 (2010) [hereinafter, FAO, STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY 2010] (lowering the estimate of malnourished people in light of the recovery of the global economy after the economic crisis of 2008–2009). The FAO did not provide an estimate for the number of malnourished people in 2011 because it was reviewing its methodology for calculating undernourishment. See U.N. FOOD & AGRIC. ORG. [FAO], The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2011, 10 (2011) [hereinafter FAO, FAO, STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY 2011]. If high and volatile agricultural commodity prices persist, it appears likely that the total number of chronically undernourished people in the world will once again rise.

  3. 3.

    See FAO, State of Food Insecurity 2010, supra note 2, at 10. Food insecurity has also been growing in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14.6 % of American households experienced periods of food insecurity in 2008– a significant increase from 11.1 % in 2007. See Mark Nord et al., U.S. Dep’t of Agric., Household Food Security in the United States, 2008, Economic Research Report No. 83 iii (2009).

  4. 4.

    See U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 6, 9 (2009) [hereinafter, FAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009].

  5. 5.

    See id. at 15; Anuradha Mittal, U.N. Conference On Trade and Development [UNCTAD], The 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies, G-24 Discussion Paper No. 29, at 3–8 U.N. Doc. UNCTAD/GDS/MDP/G24/2009/3 (June 2009).

  6. 6.

    See FAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009, supra note 4, at 16.

  7. 7.

    See id. at 23; ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ, Inst. for Food and Dev. Policy/Food First, The World Food Crisis: What’s Behind It and What We Can Do About It, Food First Policy Brief No. 16, 6 (2008); Geoffrey Lean, Rising Prices Threaten Millions with Starvation, Despite Bumper Crops, The Indep., March 2, 2008.

  8. 8.

    See Mittal, supra note 5, at 16–18.

  9. 9.

    ICESCR, supra note 1, at art. 11(2).

  10. 10.

    See Michael Windfuhr, The World Food Crisis and the Right to Adequate Food, in Universal Human Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations 130, 148 (Mark Gibney & Sigrun Skogly eds., 2010).

  11. 11.

    See id.

  12. 12.

    See id.

  13. 13.

    See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, supra note 1, at art. 25; Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol & Stephen J. Powell, Just Trade: A New Covenant Linking Trade and Human Rights 56–57 (2009); Olivier De Schutter, A Human Rights Approach to Trade and Investment Policies, in The Global Food Challenge: Towards a Human Rights Approach to Trade and Investment Policies 14, 15 (2009). See also Smita Narula, The Right to Food: Holding Global Actors Accountable Under International Law, 44 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 691, 780–91 (2006) (using human rights treaties, humanitarian law, U.N. resolutions, multi-state declarations, constitutional rights, and domestic jurisprudence to support the treatment of the right to food as customary international law—apart from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

  14. 14.

    See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Dec. 16, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, art. 6(1) [hereinafter ICCPR].

  15. 15.

    See Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, General Comment No. 6: The Right to Life, para. 5 (April 30, 1982).

  16. 16.

    See ICESCR, supra note 1, at art.1; ICCPR, supra note 14, at art. 1.

  17. 17.

    See Windfuhr, supra note 10, at 138.

  18. 18.

    See U.N. Comm. on Econ., Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12: The Right to Adequate Food, para. 36 U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1999/5 (May 12, 1999).

  19. 19.

    See generally Windfuhr, supra note 10, at 152–54. See also Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (Sept. 28, 2011). Adopted by experts in international law and human rights law at a gathering convened by Maastricht University and the International Commission of Jurists, the Maastricht Principles seek to clarify the extraterritorial obligations of states to realize economic, social, and cultural rights.

  20. 20.

    See Cary Fowler & Pat Mooney, Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity 40–41 (1996); E.M. Young, World Hunger 41-42 (1997).

  21. 21.

    See James M. Cypher & James L. Dietz, The Process of Economic Development 86 (1997); Peter Robbins, Stolen Fruit: The Tropical Commodities Disaster 2–3, 7–15 (2003).

  22. 22.

    See Cypher & Dietz, supra note 21, at 172.

  23. 23.

    See Fowler & Mooney, supra note 20, at 95–96; James Wessel, Trading the Future: Farm Exports and the Concentration of Economic Power in Our Food System 166–67 (1983); Young, supra note 20, at 66.

  24. 24.

    See Christopher Stevens et al., The WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Food Security 14 (2000); U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004, 19 (2004) [hereinafter FAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004].

  25. 25.

    See FAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004, supra note 24, at 12–13; Cypher & Dietz, supra note 21, at 86; Peter Robbins, Stolen Fruit: The Tropical Commodities Disaster 2–3, 7–15 (2003); Young, supra note 20, at 41–42.

  26. 26.

    See FAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009, supra note 4, at 10, 27–29.

  27. 27.

    See The GATT Uruguay Round: A Negotiating History (1986–1992) 141, 155–56 (Terence P. Stewart ed., 1993) [hereinafter GATT Uruguay Round]; M. Ataman Aksoy, Global Agricultural Trade Policies, in Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries 37 (M. Ataman Aksoy & John C. Beghin eds., 2004).

  28. 28.

    See GATT Uruguay Round, supra note 27, at 154–57; Aksoy, supra note 27, at 37.

  29. 29.

    See Carmen G. Gonzalez, Institutionalizing Inequality: The WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Food Security, and Developing Countries, 27 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 433, 440–45 (2002); Fiona Smith, Regulating Agriculture in the WTO, 7 (2) Int’l J. Law In Context 233, 234 (2011).

  30. 30.

    See Philippe Cullet, Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law 60 (2003); Faizel Ismail, Rediscovering the Role of Developing Countries in GATT before the Doha Round, 1 L. & Dev. Rev. 49, 50, 55 (2008).

  31. 31.

    See Yong-Shik Lee, Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System 107–10 (2006); Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 440–46; Ismail, supra note 30, at 58–59.

  32. 32.

    See Ismail, supra note 30, at 65–67.

  33. 33.

    See Lee, supra note 31, at 37–38.

  34. 34.

    See Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, 7 U.S.C. §§ 1691–1736e (1982); Food for Peace Act of 1966, Pub. L. No. 89–808, § 3(c), 80 Stat. 1526 (codified at 7 U.S.C. §§ 1427, 1431, 1431b, 1446a-7, 1691–1736e (1982)); Wessel, supra note 23, at 29–31, 52–55, 168–76.

  35. 35.

    See Carmen G. Gonzalez, Markets, Monocultures, and Malnutrition: Agricultural Trade Policy Through an Environmental Justice Lens, 14 Mich. St. J. Int’l L. 345, 361 (2006).

  36. 36.

    See Gordon Conway, The Doubly Green Revolution: Food For All in the 21st Century 44 (1997); Keith Griffin, Alternative Strategies for Economic Development 144 (2d ed., 1990).

  37. 37.

    See Conway, supra note 36, at 47–52, 61.

  38. 38.

    See id. at 69–72; Fowler & Mooney, supra note 20, at 58–59; Keith Griffin, The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: An Essay on the Green Revolution 51–52 (1974); Young, supra note 20, at 72. Approximately 80 % of the published reports on the Green Revolution concluded that it had a negative impact on poverty and inequality. See Donald K. Freebairn, Did the Green Revolution Concentrate Incomes? A Quantitative Study of Research Reports, 23 World Dev. 265 (1995).

  39. 39.

    See Carmen G. Gonzalez, Trade Liberalization, Food Security, and the Environment: The Neoliberal Threat to Sustainable Rural Development, 14 Transnat’l L. & Contemp. Prob. 419, 442–43 (2004).

  40. 40.

    See Griffin, supra note 36, at 158; Gonzalez, supra note 39, at 443–44.

  41. 41.

    See Fowler & Mooney, supra note 20, at 75–76, 130–31; Lori Ann Thrupp, Linking Biodiversity and Agriculture: Challenges for Sustainable Food Security 35 (1997).

  42. 42.

    See Conway, supra note 36, at 86–104; Fowler & Mooney, supra note 20, at 63–81; Thrupp, supra note 41, at 32–33.

  43. 43.

    See Thomas Prugh, Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival 58–62, 66–69 (1995); U.N. Env’t Programme [UNEP], The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment’s Role in Averting Future Food Crises 66 (Christian Nellemann et al. eds., 2009); David Tilman, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, in Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecoystems 93, 104–06 (Gretchen C. Daily ed., 1997).

  44. 44.

    See Fowler & Mooney, supra note 20, at 47.

  45. 45.

    See Prugh, supra note 43, at 64–65; UNEP, The Environmental Food Crisis, supra note 43, at 74; Norman Myers, Biodiversity’s Genetic Library, in Nature’s Services: SOCIETAL DEPENDENCE ON NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS, supra note 43, at 255, 256–63.

  46. 46.

    See Prugh, supra note 43, at 81–84; Carmen G. Gonzalez, Climate Change, Food Security, and Agrobiodiversity: Toward a Just, Resilient, and Sustainable Food System, 22 Fordham Envt’l Law. Rev. 493, 495–500 (2011) (describing the consequences of declining food crop diversity); Keith Aoki, Intergenerational Equity and Global Food Supply—Past, Present, and Future 2011 Wis. L. Rev. 399, 423–42 (2011) (discussing how the legal regimes governing intellectual property rights and plant genetic resources have commodified and privatized plant genetic resources and narrowed the genetic base of the world’s food system).

  47. 47.

    See Susan George, A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis and the Poor 28–29 (1990); Richard Peet et al., Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO 71 (2003).

  48. 48.

    See George, supra note 47, at 28; Peet et al., supra note 47, at 72–75.

  49. 49.

    See Peet et al., supra note 47, at 75.

  50. 50.

    See George, supra note 47, at 59–60; John Madeley, Food for All: The Need for a New Agriculture 117 (2002); Young, supra note 20, at 43.

  51. 51.

    See Mittal, supra note 5, at 13–15; Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Int’l Network (SAPRIN), The Policy Roots of Economic Crisis and Poverty: A Multi-Country Participatory Assessment of Structural Adjustment 124–26 (2002) [hereinafter SAPRIN].

  52. 52.

    See Belinda Coote, The Trade Trap 34–35 (1992); George, supra note 47, at 60–61; Madeley, supra note 50, at 154–55; Robbins, supra note 25, at 29–30.

  53. 53.

    See Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalisation of Poverty 62–63 (1997); George, supra note 47, at 52.

  54. 54.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 35, at 365.

  55. 55.

    See Michael E. Conroy et al., A Cautionary Tale: Failed U.S. Development Policy in Central America 14 (1996); Madeley, supra note 50, at 120.

  56. 56.

    See John Madeley, Hungry for Trade: How the Poor Pay for Free Trade 77 (2000); Mittal, supra note 5, at 8–11; SAPRIN, supra note 51, at 116–18.

  57. 57.

    Agreement on Agriculture, pmbl. 2, Apr. 15, 1994, 1867 U.N.T.S. 410 [hereinafter AoA].

  58. 58.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 452–58 (analyzing the main provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture).

  59. 59.

    AoA, supra note 57, Arts. 4.2 (requiring the replacement of quantitative restrictions and other non-tariff measures by tariffs) and 4.1 (requiring the gradual reduction of these tariffs).

  60. 60.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 460–61.

  61. 61.

    See id. at 461.

  62. 62.

    See id. at 461–62.

  63. 63.

    See Olivier De Schutter, International Trade in Agriculture and the Right to Food, inAccounting For Hunger: The Right To Food in the Era of Globalisation 137, 146–47 (Olivier De Schutter & Kaitlin Y. Cordes, eds. 2011).

  64. 64.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 465–67.

  65. 65.

    See id. at 467–68.

  66. 66.

    See Stephen Castle & Mark Landler, After 7 Years, Talks Collapse on World Trade, N.Y. Times, July 20, 2008; John W. Miller, Trade Talk Impasse Prompts a Plan B, Wall St. J., Apr. 28, 2011.

  67. 67.

    Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, art. 3.1(a) (prohibiting export subsidies, but exempting agricultural products covered by the AoA).

  68. 68.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 463–64.

  69. 69.

    See id. at 464–65; De Schutter, supra note 63, at 147.

  70. 70.

    See De Schutter, supra note 63, at 147; Boyan Konstantinov, Invoking the Right to Food in the WTO Dispute Resolution Process: The Relevance of the Right to Food in the Law of the WTO, in Accounting For Hunger: The Right To Food in the Era of Globalisation, supra note 63, at 218.

  71. 71.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 39, at 466–67.

  72. 72.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 462–63.

  73. 73.

    See id. at 462–63, 479–80.

  74. 74.

    See Sophia Murphy et al., Inst. for Agric. Trade & Policy [IATP], WTO Agreement on Agriculture: A Decade of Dumping 1 (2005); ActionAid, The Impact of Agro-Export Surges in Developing Countries 8 (2008).

  75. 75.

    See ActionAid, supra note 74, at 8–10; see also Carmen G. Gonzalez, An Environmental Justice Critique of Comparative Advantage: Indigenous Peoples, Trade Policy, and the Mexican Neoliberal Economic Reforms, 32 U. PA. J. Int’l L. 723 (2011) (analyzing the impact on the Mexican corn sector of the trade liberalization commitments undertaken pursuant to the North American Free Trade Agreement); James Thuo Gathii, The Neoliberal Turn in Regional Trade Agreements, 86 Wash. L. Rev. 421 (2011) (examining the role of bilateral and regional trade agreements in promoting neoliberal economic reforms in the global South).

  76. 76.

    See FAO, State of Food Insecurity 2011, supra note 2, at 12–13; Organization for Economic Co-operation & Dev. [OECD] & U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], Agricultural Outlook 2011–2020, 1 (2011).

  77. 77.

    See U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], Food Outlook—November 2011, 146 (2011).

  78. 78.

    See id. at 1.

  79. 79.

    See De Schutter, supra note 63, at 148, 164–66. Article 16 of the AoA provides that WTO members shall take the measures set forth in the Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Program on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (the Marrakesh Decision). The measures consist of food aid; technical and financial assistance to improve agricultural productivity; agricultural export credits; and short-term financing to permit developing countries to maintain normal levels of commercial imports. See Uruguay Round Agreement: Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (1994).

  80. 80.

    See generally Colin Sage, Environment and Food 20–65 (2011) (describing the structure of the global agri-food system).

  81. 81.

    See Raj Patel & Sanaz Memarsadeghi, Agricultural Restructuring and Concentration in the United States: Who Wins? Who Loses?, Food First Policy Brief No. 6, 34–36 (2003); Peter M. Rosset, Food is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture 45–49 (2006) (describing the concentration of U.S. agriculture); Timothy A. Wise, The Paradox of Agricultural Subsidies: Measurement Issues, Agricultural Dumping, and Policy Reform 8–9, 24 (Global Dev. & Env’t Inst. Working Paper No. 04–02, 2004).

  82. 82.

    See Rosset, supra note 81, at 46.

  83. 83.

    See ETC Group, Who Owns Nature? 4, 15 (2008).

  84. 84.

    Id. at 4, 12.

  85. 85.

    See Sage, supra note 80, at 54–62.

  86. 86.

    See generally Sophia Murphy, Managing the Invisible Hand: Markets, Farmers and International Trade 21–29, 32 (2002); Patel & Memarsadeghi, supra note 81, at 34–36; Rosset, supra note 81, at 46–48; Bill Vorley, Food, Inc.: Corporate Concentration from Farm to Consumer (2003); Wise, supra note 81, at 8. For a graphic representation of the power dynamics in the global food system, see Sage, supra note 80, at 58, Fig. 2.4.

  87. 87.

    See ETC Group, supra note 83, at 5; Rosset, supra note 81, at 41–51.

  88. 88.

    See e.g., Robin Hahnel, The ABCs of Political Economy 189–190 (2002).

  89. 89.

    See generally The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture (Andrew Kimbrell, ed., 2002); Robert Gottlieb & Anupama Joshi, Food Justice 13–38 (2010).

  90. 90.

    See Norman Myers & Jennifer Kent, Perverse Subsidies: How Tax Dollars Can Undercut the Environment and the Economy 48–50 (2001); Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 62–63, 100–108 (2007); Sage, supra note 80, at 239–41.

  91. 91.

    See Peter Wahl, The Role of Speculation in the 2008 Food Price Bubble, in The Global Food Challenge, supra note 13, at 68, 70.

  92. 92.

    See Frederick Kaufman, How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis, Foreign Pol’y (Apr. 27, 2011); Wahl, supra note 91, at 68, 70–71.

  93. 93.

    See Olivier De Schutter, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Briefing Note 2, Food Commodities Speculation and Food Price Crises 5 (Sept. 2010).

  94. 94.

    See id. at 5–6.

  95. 95.

    See Wahl, supra note 91, at 75–76.

  96. 96.

    See Anthony Nyong, Climate Change Impacts in the Developing World: Implications for Sustainable Development, in Climate change and Global Poverty: A Billion Lives in the Balance? 47–51 (Lael Brainard et al, eds., 2009).

  97. 97.

    See William R. Cline, Global Warming and Agriculture: Estimates by Country 79 (2007).

  98. 98.

    See Nyong, supra note 96, at 50–51.

  99. 99.

    See Ruchi Anand, International Environmental Justice: A North-South Dimension 35–41 (2004).

  100. 100.

    See U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], Climate change, Water, and Food Security 16 (2011).

  101. 101.

    See Jessica Bellarby et al., Cool Farming: Climate Impacts of Agriculture and Mitigation Potential 16 (2008). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chance, the next largest emitter is the energy supply sector, which is responsible for 25.9 % of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report 36, fig. 2.1 (2007).

  102. 102.

    See Working Group on Climate Change and Development, Other Worlds are Possible: Human Progress in an Age of Climate Change 40–42 (Nov. 2009); International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO) & Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Organic Farming and Climate Change 21 (2007) [hereinafter, Organic Farming and Climate Change].

  103. 103.

    See Jules N. Pretty, Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practices for Sustainability and Self-Reliance 8–13 (1995).

  104. 104.

    See Organic Farming and Climate Change , supra note 102, at 7–8.

  105. 105.

    See generally International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD], Agriculture at a Crossroads: Synthesis Report (2009); United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment’s Role in Averting Future Food Crises (Christian Nellemann et al. eds., 2009) [hereinafter UNEP, The Environmental Food Crisis]; U.N. Conference on Trade and Dev. [UNCTAD] & U.N. Env’t Programme [UNEP], Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa (2008).

  106. 106.

    See generally U.N. General Assembly, Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, Agro-Ecology and the Right to Food, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/16/49 (20 December 20102); UNCTAD & UNEP, supra note 105; Jules Pretty et al., Resource Conserving Agriculture Increases Yields in Developing Countries, 40 Envt’l Sci. & Tech 1114 (2006); Int’l Fund for Agric. Dev. [IFAD], The Adoption of Organic Agriculture Among Small Farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean (2003); Nicholas Parrott & Terry Marsden, The New Green Revolution: Organic and Agroecological Farming in the South (2002); Jules N. Pretty, Reducing Food Poverty by Increasing Sustainability in Developing Countries, 95 Agric. Ecosystems & Env’t 217 (2003); Jules N. Pretty & Rachel Hine, The Promising Spread of Sustainable Agriculture in Asia, 24 NAT. RESOURCES F. 107 (2000); Jules N. Pretty, Can Sustainable Agriculture Feed Africa New Evidence on Progress, Processes and Impacts, 1 Env’t, Dev. & Sustainability 253 (1999).

  107. 107.

    See FAO, State of Agriculture Commodity Markets 2009, supra note 4, at 19–21; Mittal, supra note 5, at 6–8.

  108. 108.

    See FAO, State of Food Insecurity 2011, supra note 2, at 12–13; Sage, supra note 80, at 224–25.

  109. 109.

    U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], The State of Food and Agriculture; Biofuels: Prospects, Risks and Opportunities 55–59 (2008); see also Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Changes to Renewable Fuel Standard Program, 74 Fed. Reg. 24,904, 25,043, tbl.VI.C.1–2, tbl. VI.C.1–3 (proposed May 26, 2009) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. pt. 80).

  110. 110.

    See U.N. Env’t Programme [UNEP], Towards Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels 67–68 (2009).

  111. 111.

    See generally Ward Answeeuw et al., Land Rights and the Rush for Land (2012); Lorenzo Cotula et al., Land Grab or Development Opportunity? Agricultural Investment and International Land Deals in Africa (2009); Alexandra Spieldoch & Sophia Murphy, Agricultural Land Acquisitions: Implications for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation, in Land Grab? The Race for the World’s Farmland 39, 39 (Michael Kugelman & Susan L. Levenstein eds., 2009) [hereinafter “Land Grab?”].

  112. 112.

    See Michael Kugelman, Introduction to Land Grab?, supra note 111, at 2; Spieldoch & Murphy, supra note 111, at 41–42.

  113. 113.

    See Ward Anseeuw et al., Land Rights and the Rush For Land 26–27 (2012).

  114. 114.

    See id. at 23.

  115. 115.

    See id. at 21.

  116. 116.

    See Howard Mann, Foreign Land Purchases for Agriculture: What Impact on Sustainable Development? 1 (U.N. Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Aff., Sustainable Development Innovation Briefs, Issue 8, Jan. 2010).

  117. 117.

    See Spieldoch & Murphy, supra note 111, at 43–48.

  118. 118.

    See Raul Q. Montemayor, Overseas Farmland Investments—Boon or Bane for Farmers in Asia?, in Land Grab?, supra note 111, at 101–102; Olivier De Schutter, The Green Rush: The Global Race for Farmland and the Rights of Land Users, 52 Harv. Int’l L.J. 503, 524, 537 (2011).

  119. 119.

    See Montemayor, supra note 118, at 101–103.

  120. 120.

    See Ruth Meinzen & Helena Markelova, Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in Foreign Land Deals, in LAND GRAB?, supra note 111, at 74; Montemayor, supra note 118, at 102–105; Spieldoch & Murphy, supra note 111, at 46–47.

  121. 121.

    See Carin Smaller & Howard Mann, A Thirst for Distant Lands: Foreign Investment in Agricultural Land and Water 14 (Int’l Inst. for Sustainable Dev., 2009).

  122. 122.

    See id.

  123. 123.

    See Klaus Deininger & Derek Byerlee, Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits? 97–98 (2011).

  124. 124.

    See Mann, supra note 116, at 2.

  125. 125.

    See id. at 4.

  126. 126.

    See generally Lorenzo Cotula, Regulatory Takings, Stabilization Clauses and Sustainable Development, OECD Global Forum on International Investment (March 27–28, 2008) (analyzing several types of stabilization clauses and their implications for sustainable development).

  127. 127.

    See Mann, supra note 116, at 3–4.

  128. 128.

    See Smaller & Mann, supra note 121, at 10.

  129. 129.

    See id. at 11–13.

  130. 130.

    See id. at 11.

  131. 131.

    See id.

  132. 132.

    See id. at 12.

  133. 133.

    See Mann, supra note 116, at 3.

  134. 134.

    See Smaller & Mann, supra note 121, at 16–17.

  135. 135.

    See Mann, supra note 116, at 4.

  136. 136.

    See generally Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay On Entitlement and Deprivation (1981).

  137. 137.

    See Sage, supra note 80, at 72; Frances Moore Lappe et al., World Hunger: Twelve Myths 9 (1998); Conway, supra note 36, at 4–5.

  138. 138.

    See Holt-Gimenez, supra note 7, at 16–17; Lean, supra note 7.

  139. 139.

    See Thomas Hirsch et al., Deepening the Food Crisis? Climate Change, Food Security and the Right to Food, in The Global Food Challenge, supra note 13, at 84; Int’l Fund for Agric. Dev., Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty (2001); U.N. Food & Agric. Org. [FAO], The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003, 16 (2003) [hereinafter FAO, State of Food Insecurity 2003].

  140. 140.

    See ETC Group, Who Will Feed Us? 1 (Nov. 2009); Kevin Watkins & Joachim von Braun, Time to Stop Dumping on the World’s Poor 2 (2003).

  141. 141.

    See, e.g., Wessel, supra note 23, at 168; Harvesting Poverty: The Unkept Promise, N.Y. Times, Dec. 30, 2003, at A20.

  142. 142.

    SeeFAO, State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009, supra note 4, at 34–35; Olivier De Schutter, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Background Document to Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Mission to the World Trade Organization, delivered to the Human Rights Council, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/005/Add.2 (Feb. 4, 2009).

  143. 143.

    See World Bank, Poverty and Hunger: Issues and Options for Food Security in Developing Countries 10–11 (1986).

  144. 144.

    See Mittal, supra note 5, at 9–11; Ha-Joon Chang, Rethinking Public Policy in Agriculture: Lessons from History, Distant and Recent, 36 J. Peasant Stud. 477, 478, 480–81 (2009).

  145. 145.

    See IAASTD, supra note 105, at vii.

  146. 146.

    Id. at 379, 411, 497.

  147. 147.

    See Ha-Joon Chang, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and The Secret History of Capitalism 40–60 (2008); Ha-Joon Chang, Kicking Away The Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective 19–51, 59–66 (2002).

  148. 148.

    See Lee, supra note 31, at 9–13.

  149. 149.

    See AoA, supra note 57, at art. 7; Gonzalez, supra note 29, at 481–82; Tobias Reichert, Agricultural Trade Liberalization in Multilateral and Bilateral Trade Negotiations, in The Global Food Challenge, supra note 13, at 29, 33.

  150. 150.

    See Reichert, supra note 149, at 34–35.

  151. 151.

    See generally WTO, Revised Draft Modalities for Agriculture, Special Session TN/AG/W/4/Rev. 4 (Dec. 6, 2008) (summarizing the progress made in the WTO agriculture negotiations since July 2008 and discussing the SP and SSM flexibility mechanisms); see also Alan Matthews, The Impact of WTO Agricultural Trade Rules on Food Security and Development: An Examination of Proposed Additional Flexibilities for Developing Countries, in Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement 104, 109–19 (Joseph A. McMahom & Melaku Geboye Desta, eds., 2012) (explaining the disputes between developed and developing countries over the SP and SSM mechanisms).

  152. 152.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 75, at 784–85 (discussing the failure of Mexican policy-makers to avail themselves of exceptions in the North American Free Trade Agreement to shield small farmers from the impacts of U.S. agricultural subsidies and the deployment of human rights law by indigenous activists to influence the behavior of the Mexican state).

  153. 153.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 39, at 489–92.

  154. 154.

    See, e.g., Carmen G. Gonzalez, Genetically Modified Organisms and Justice: The International Environmental Justice Implications of Biotechnology, 19 Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev 583, 637–39 (2007) (discussing efforts to regulate corporate anti-competitive behavior within the WTO framework); Alice de Jonge, Transnational Corporations and International Law: Accountability in the Global Business Environment 91–117, 146–82 (2011) (exploring how domestic and international law might be reformed to hold corporations liable for harms caused by their extraterritorial activities).

  155. 155.

    See Smaller & Mann, supra note 121, at 9.

  156. 156.

    See id. at 9–13.

  157. 157.

    See Wahl, supra note 91, at 76–77 (recommending that trade in food on the spot or derivative markets be limited to registered traders and that highly speculative activities such as short-selling be prohibited); Inst. for Agric. Trade Pol’y [IATP], Commodities Market Speculation: The Risk to Food Security and Agriculture 10–11 (2008) (proposing national and global regulatory strategies to address agricultural commodity market speculation).

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    See Hernández-Truyol & Powell, supra note 13, at 284–88; Gonzalez, supra note 154, at 626–28; De Schutter, supra note 142, at 15–16.

  159. 159.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 154, at 626–28.

  160. 160.

    See North American Free Trade Agreement, art. 104, U.S.-Can.-Mex., Dec. 17, 1992, 32 I.L.M. 289 (1993).

  161. 161.

    See Hernández-Truyol & Powell, supra note 13, at 282–83.

  162. 162.

    See Kerstin Mechlem, Harmonizing Trade in Agriculture and Human Rights: Options for the Integration of the Right to Food into the Agreement on Agriculture, 10 Max Planck Yearbook of U.N. Law 127, 174 (2006).

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    See De Schutter, supra note 142, at 23–24. See also, Olivier De Schutter, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements, delivered to the General Assembly, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/19/59/Add.5 (Dec. 19, 2011); Ctr. for Int’l. Envt’l Law, EIAs in Practice: Potential Lessons for Human Rights Impact Assessment (June 2010).

  164. 164.

    See Exec. Order No. 13,141, 64 Fed. Reg. 63,169 (Nov. 16, 1999).

  165. 165.

    See De Schutter, supra note 142, at 23.

  166. 166.

    See id.

  167. 167.

    See AoA, supra note 57, at art. 20.

  168. 168.

    See De Schutter, supra note 142, at 25.

  169. 169.

    See Gonzalez, supra note 35, at 374.

  170. 170.

    See Aaron Cosbey et al., International Institute for Sustainable Development, Investment and Sustainable Development: A Guide to the Use and Potential of International Investment Agreements 29–35 (2004). The IISD has drafted a model investment agreement and an accompanying handbook with numerous suggestions on ways to balance investor rights and host country policy space. See http://www.iisd.org/investment/model/ (model agreement); see also http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2005/investment_model_int_handbook.pdf (accompanying handbook).

  171. 171.

    See Cosbey et al, supra note 170, at 29–35; Howard Mann, Int’l Inst. for Sustainable Dev., International Investment Agreements, Business and Human Rights: Key Issues and Opportunities 13–15 (2008).

  172. 172.

    See De Schutter, supra note 142, at 18–19; Smaller & Mann, supra note 121, at 10.

  173. 173.

    See Matthews, supra note 151, at 125–28; Martin Khor, The Blame Game Still Stalling Doha Round of WTO Talks, China Post, March 1, 2011.

  174. 174.

    See Peter M. Rosset, Food Is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture 34–35 (2006); Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente & Ana María Suárez-Franco, Human Rights and the Struggle Against Hunger: Laws, Institutions, and Instruments in the Fight to Realize the Right to Adequate Food, 13 Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. L.J. 435, 452–53 (2010).

  175. 175.

    See Valente & Suárez-Franco, supra note 174, at 453; Peter Halewood, Trade Liberalization and Obstacles to Food Security: Toward a Sustainable Food Sovereignty, 43 Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 115, 134–35 (2012).

  176. 176.

    Mohsen al Attar, The Transnational Peasant Movement: Legalising Freedom from Want, 8 New Zealand Yearbook of Int’l Law 107, 131 (2010).

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  1. Seattle University School of Law, 901 12th Avenue, 98122, Seattle, WA, USA

    Carmen G. Gonzalez

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  1. Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Nadia C.S. Lambek

  2. Center for Philosophy of Law, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Priscilla Claeys

  3. San Francisco, California, USA

    Adrienna Wong

  4. Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Lea Brilmayer

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Gonzalez, C. (2014). International Economic Law and the Right to Food. In: Lambek, N., Claeys, P., Wong, A., Brilmayer, L. (eds) Rethinking Food Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7778-1_8

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