scholarly journals Commonification of Food as an Approach for the Achievement of Food Security

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Nicholas Wasonga Orago

The commodification of food is one of the many causes of food insecurity as it occasions the inability of poor households to access the available food because of high prices and dysfunctional markets. A change of approach from commodification to commonification to deal with food insecurity at the national, regional and global level is the way to go. As commodification of food is a social construct adopted as a result of deliberate societal policy-making, commonification can similarly be adopted through legal and institutional design at the local, national and international levels; creating polycentric systems for the management of food-producing resources for the local communities. With commonification, decisions relating to the use of local resources for the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food are made at the local level, to ensure that other socioeconomic and cultural aspects of food are considered in the decision-making processes. The integrated aspects of the right to food and food democracy are critical components of the commonification approach to food security.

Fascism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Griffin

In the entry on ‘Fascism’ published in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana, Benito Mussolini made a prediction. There were, he claimed, good reasons to think that the twentieth century would be a century of ‘authority’, the ‘right’: a fascist century (un secolo fascista). However, after 1945 the many attempts by fascists to perpetuate the dreams of the 1930s have come to naught. Whatever impact they have had at a local level, and however profound the delusion that fascists form a world-wide community of like-minded ultranationalists and racists revolutionaries on the brink of ‘breaking through’, as a factor in the shaping of the modern world, their fascism is clearly a spent force. But history is a kaleidoscope of perspectives that dynamically shift as major new developments force us to rewrite the narrative we impose on it. What if we take Mussolini’s secolo to mean not the twentieth century, but the ‘hundred years since the foundation of Fascism’? Then the story we are telling ourselves changes radically.


2012 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Williams ◽  
Michelle Amero ◽  
Barbara Anderson ◽  
Doris Gillis ◽  
Rebecca Green-Lapierre ◽  
...  

In recognition of the growing challenge that food insecurity has on population health, a multisectoral partership in Nova Scotia has been working since 2001 to address province-wide accessibility to a nutritious diet. The participatory food costing (PFC) model has been at the forefront of provincial and national efforts to address food insecurity; a local foods component was incorporated in 2004. This model has engaged community partners, including those affected by food insecurity, in all stages of the research, thereby building capacity at multiple levels to influence policy change and food systems redesign. By putting principles of participatory action research into practice, dietitians have contributed their technical, research, and facilitation expertise to support capacity building among the partners. The PFC model has provided people experiencing food insecurity with a mechanism for sharing their voices. By valuing different ways of knowing, the model has faciliated muchneeded dialogue on the broad and interrelated determinants of food security and mobilized knowledge that reflects these perspectives. The development of the model is described, as are lessons learned from a decade of highly productive research and knowledge mobilization that have increased stakeholders’ understanding of and involvement in addressing the many facets of food security in Nova Scotia.


Author(s):  
Elver Hilal

This chapter focuses on food security. Although ‘food security’ is not a legal concept and does not impose rights or responsibilities, it is a necessary precondition to the full enjoyment of the right to food. The right to food is enshrined in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an integral part of the right to an adequate standard of living. As this right is indivisible, interrelated, and interdependent with all other fundamental rights and freedoms, it is ultimately essential for a secure, safe, and harmonious world. The chapter demonstrates that severe food insecurity continues to inflict massive casualties and create and prolong conflicts and emergencies despite well-established rules of international law, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law. It then looks at the international law principles protecting food security with the aim to diffuse emergency situations that create instability, inequality, and unrest, including those resulting from conflicts and natural disasters. The chapter provides suggestions for enforcing and enhancing existing laws and for the adoption of a new international convention which will set out clear duties and obligations for States and non-State actors with a view to eliminating food insecurity and preventing violations of the right to food for a safer, more secure world.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Hussein

This paper looks into the necessity of a global governance system for food security from a "humane" side, with a focus on countries and MNCs. It also explores potential mechanisms to drive MNCs involvement in the global governance of food security into a more inclusive path. Furthermore, the paper explores a more sustainable side to globally governing food security. All in all, this paper calls for the reshaping of a global governance system that better matches the root causes of food insecurity, rather than tries to solve hunger with food aid and provision. The solution starts with asking the right questions. The global governance system should adopt a sole human rights framework while addressing food insecurity. It should acknowledge that questions such as “for whose benefit?” is just as important as “how to produce more?”. Although effective, International Governmental Organizations should further consider how global rules affect different people, who will bear the risks, who will get the benefits from changes, who remain disempowered, and whose ability to control is neglected or enhanced. Global food policy should not just be feeding people, but rather feeding them equitably, appropriately, and sustainably. This brings about a new global food regime that’s integrative of the human right to food.


Author(s):  
Chigbu ◽  
Ntihinyurwa ◽  
de Vries ◽  
Ngenzi

Land use consolidation aims to address food insecurity challenges in Rwanda. However, there is contradictory evidence on whether this tool has met food security objectives or not. This study addresses two questions: How has the land use consolidation improved (or not improved) food security at the local level? How can food security challenges be addressed using a renewed approach to land use consolidation that adopts a tenure responsive land use planning procedure? We investigate these questions in Nyange Sector (in the Musanze District) of Rwanda using mixed research methods. The study generates theoretical and policy relevant outcomes. Theoretically, it links the concept of tenure responsive land-use planning to food security improvements. Policy wise, it provides an operational framework for implementing land use consolidation to make it more responsive to food security (based on tenure responsive land-use planning measures) in Rwanda.


Author(s):  
Olivier De Schutter

Sovereign debt and the measures imposed on indebted nations, in conjunction with trade liberalisation under the WTO or other similar regimes have forced many countries to forego traditional food security schemes, particularly through state subsidies. As a result, price fluctuations in staple commodities as well as currency fluctuations have forced poorer nations to effectively surrender their food sovereignty in favour of their multilateral trade obligations, investment obligations and debt repayment agreements with both private and public lenders, particularly through the facilitation of multilateral development banks. This chapter traces the roots of food insecurity as a result of sovereign debt-related measures, policies and effects. It does so through particular paradigms, especially through the work of pertinent UN mandates. It examines in what manner the right to food, as enshrined in the ICESCR, may be fulfilled as well as how food security can co-exist alongside trade liberalisation.


Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atenchong Talleh Nkobou ◽  
Andrew Ainslie ◽  
Stefanie Lemke

AbstractProponents of large-scale land investments (LSLI) still promote them as a development opportunity, which can lead, among other benefits, to job creation and enhanced food security for local communities. However, there is increasing evidence that these investments often deprive affected communities of their access to land, with multiple negative impacts on livelihoods, food security and on the environment. This paper relies on empirical data to present an analysis of LSLI and food (in)security – crucially at the level of individuals in two villages in the Ruvuma region, Tanzania, over 10 years after the acquisition of village land within the Southern African Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). We introduce an innovative framework that permits an integration of a rights-based approach with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to explore smallholders’ livelihoods and experiences of food insecurity. Our paper demonstrates how this integration, along with attention we have given to the FAO’s PANTHER principles, adds the missing yet crucial dimension of accountability on the part of national governments as duty bearers. Our findings show that in the case of these two villages, the human rights principles of participation, accountability, transparency and empowerment are severely undermined, with women bearing the brunt in all these domains. This overall state of affairs is, we argue, due to inadequate monitoring and evaluation of LSLI processes themselves and low levels of commitment on the part of institutions in Tanzania to monitor the promises made by investors. This in turn demonstrates an accountability deficit on the part of duty-bearers within LSLIs, and limited capacity of affected community members to claim their rights. Individual food insecurity experience in the two communities correlates, among other characteristics, with lack of land ownership, employment and income-generating activities. The rights-based livelihoods framework applied in this study points to serious deficiencies in the LSLI model as presently endorsed in SAGCOT, and emphasises the fact that access to land in Tanzania is a precondition for the realisation of the right to adequate food and thus a critical requirement for achieving and maintaining food and nutrition security. We conclude by arguing that progressive coalitions within and beyond national states must devise policies and institutions that empower individuals and civil society actors to make demands on their governments to respect, protect and fulfil their obligations regarding the legally enforceable right to food.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Aski Widdatul Fuadah ◽  
Fajrin Nurman Arifin ◽  
Oktalia Juwita

Clustering is a process of grouping data based on similarities or similarities with other members in a group. Food security is the condition of a country to provide food for individuals, which does not conflict with beliefs, religion and culture and leads a healthy, active and productive life. Food instability and food insecurity can be caused by many factors, one of which is natural disasters. In 2020, Jember Regency experienced 121 natural disasters. Determination of the optimal K value is done to get the right number of group divisions from the clustering process, in this case using the elbow method. The data used in the clustering process are sub-districts in Jember Regency using transient attributes or natural disaster events. Based on the results of sub-district data grouping from the number of clusters k=1 to k=10, the optimal k value was found at the value of k = 4 with the SSE (Sum of Square Error) value = 24,809.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18(33) (1) ◽  
pp. 203-213
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Poczta-Wajda

The consequence of multidimensional and multilevel idea of food security is the large number of definitions and measures. The aim of this article was an attempt to systematize food security measurement methods and to indicate their advantages and disadvantages based on the literature review. Food security measurement methods were divided into five groups. Although none of the presented methods does not address this problem in a comprehensive and error-free manner, it is clear from a review of the literature that experience-based food insecurity scales methods are very popular and appreciated among food security researchers, particularly at national and local level.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 566-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Rideout ◽  
Graham Riches ◽  
Aleck Ostry ◽  
Don Buckingham ◽  
Rod MacRae

AbstractWe offer a critique of Canada's approach to domestic food security with respect to international agreements, justiciability and case law, the breakdown of the public safety net, the institutionalisation of charitable approaches to food insecurity, and the need for ‘joined-up’ food and nutrition policies. We examined Canada's commitments to the right to food, as well as Canadian policies, case law and social trends, in order to assess Canada's performance with respect to the human right to food. We found that while Canada has been a leader in signing international human rights agreements, including those relating to the right to food, domestic action has lagged and food insecurity increased. We provide recommendations for policy changes that could deal with complex issues of state accountability, social safety nets and vulnerable populations, and joined-up policy frameworks that could help realise the right to adequate food in Canada and other developed nations.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document