Making Do or Moving Forward: An Assessment of Our Global Food System [review of Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law]

• Main Author: Linda M. Young
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems 2016-10-01
• Series: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
• Subjects: Policy; International; Global; Law; Legal
• Online Access: https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/328

First paragraphs: The rich and diverse perspectives of Lambek, Claeys, Wong, and Brilmayer in Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law lend a great deal to their assessment of the extent to which our current system of institutions and law supports the achievement of a "just, equitable and sustainable" food system. The law here comprises a messy and complex mix of covenants, trade agreements, World Trade Organization (WTO) jurisprudence, and national laws. This book addresses the law, both as it exists and as it is being written in developing countries, while recognizing the institutional context and interests at play. The fundamental question asked by the authors is whether the current institutional and legal structure governing global food systems can be rethought to serve communities, particularly the poor, rather than corporate interests and the elite. This question is the thread that unifies discussion of the "right to food" and disparate issues, such as how some states are incorporating this right into their constitutions, legal structures, and policies; the rejection of free trade for food sovereignty by an international social movement of peasants; the challenges presented by an increase in land grabs; and negotiation of competing concepts and treaties governing the intellectual property of farmers....