Food Crisis Mitigation: The Need for an Enhanced Global Food Governance

Recent developments in international markets point to a dramatic food crisis all over the world. The media today is repeatedly dominated by staggering reports on the global food crisis, soaring crop prices and demands for bio-fuels, raising fears of political instability. Since 2002, media reports have mostly highlighted the dramatic situation of food insecurity. The Arab region is most seriously affected by the global food crisis. It is clear that the root causes of ‘the Arab springs’ and revolutions underway in various Arab countries are not only a desire for transformation to a more democratic political system but also desire for the realization of social justice among citizens, the eradication of poverty and hunger, and a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor. This paper addresses the need for a change in individual and societal behavioral patterns. It addresses the need for communities to assist governments in preventing and managing water-related food crises. It brings together world waters in its complexities, with new dimensions of institutional context and cultural norms. The effectiveness of ongoing traditional approaches may be limited without additional measures and tools to help governments understand how to engage in cooperative behavioral change.

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Intellectual Property Rights, Biotechnology and Discourses of Development: Internal Contradictions and Forms of Resistance

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.7494 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Krishana Persaud

Keyword(s):

Poverty Reduction ◽

Food System ◽

Global South ◽

Food Crisis ◽

Human Right ◽

Cultural Rights ◽

Nuanced Understanding ◽

Biotechnological Inventions ◽

Global Food

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights identifies freedom from hunger and malnutrition as a fundamental human right of every individual. The current global food crisis undermines this right and has multi‐faceted repercussions for poverty reduction and sustainable development in the Global South. A plethora of explanations have been proposed regarding the causes of the current food crisis, while a biotechnological solution involving the expansion of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds in the Global South has gained renewed momentum and simultaneously increased resistance. This presentation will provide a nuanced understanding of the promotion of IPRs and biotechnological ‘inventions’ as contemporary facets of a hegemonic modernization discourse of development. By first critically examining the development of IPRs and their relation to biotechnology I provide a basis for understanding the internal contradictions of this technologically reductionist discourse. Using a detailed case study from India, I then illustrate the way in which the internal contradictions of this discourse result in particular forms of resistance which significantly challenge the structure of the global food system.

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