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Food Rights and Justice

Food Rights and Justice. David Mitchell Birkbeck, University of London. Advocacy of ‘food rights’. ‘Right to Food approaches’ / ‘Rights-based approaches’ to tackling hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity Some essentials: Advocate treating access to adequate food as a human right

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Food Rights and Justice

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  1. Food Rights and Justice David Mitchell Birkbeck, University of London

  2. Advocacy of ‘food rights’ • ‘Right to Food approaches’ / ‘Rights-based approaches’ to tackling hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity • Some essentials: • Advocate treating access to adequate food as a human right • Advocate concrete and effective legal entitlements • Strong rhetoric of duties upon government

  3. Some Food Rights Advocates • Citizen movements e.g. Brazil, India • IGOs ECOSOC OHCHR (Special Rapporteur: Jean Ziegler, ’00-’08; Olivier De Schutter, ’08- ) FAO (Right to Food Unit) • NGOs FIAN

  4. A question of ethical orientation • Do we regard widespread lack of reliable access to adequate food as unjust, and if so on what grounds?

  5. One conception of distributive injustice: as ‘grave, remediable unfairness’ It is unjust if some of those living within a particular set of institutional arrangements are subject to grave unfairness which could be removed by adjustments or reforms to those arrangements that did not introduce other grave unfairnesses nor had disproportionately large costs in overall welfare

  6. In favour of advocates’ endorsing this general conception of injustice Support for assertions re duties Not a very major extra commitment Rival conceptions of injustice that are renounced: Hierarchical Ownership-based Contribution-based Acknowledges what rights-talk sometimes misses: Rights-fulfilment imposes costs on duty-bearers, but they’re justifiable costs

  7. What constitutes unfairness/inequity? Disparities… …in resources / capabilities / utility… …due to people’s backgrounds? …unrelated to relevant personal factors? …disproportionately large?

  8. Doubts (about declaring allegiance to the general conception) Mandate; use of authority Other conceptions of injustice to be considered Strategy and consequences Too contentious Too ‘soft’ Alliances and associations

  9. Summary Food rights advocacy as: not only Promoting the progressive realisation of the right to food but, in so doing, Seeking to combat grave unfairness in access to food, with the help of just laws

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