This presentation explores the multiple meanings of food for human societies, and the dichotomy represented by the hegemonic narrative (food as a commodity) and the emerging counter-hegemonic alternative (food as a commons). I explained the rationale for this shift in value-based narratives: the unsustainability and unfairness of the industrial food system. The transition pathway towards a food commons regime and several policy proposals are also detailed. This presentation summarizes my PhD document "How do people value food? Systematic, heuristic and normative approaches to narratives of transition in food systems" defended at University of Louvain (2017).

1. 1
Dr. JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL
Food Systems, Livelihoods &
Biodiversity Specialist, Myanmar
FOOD COMMONS
A disruptive narrative
and moral compass for
human survival
Lecture in Graduate Course on Sustainable
Development and Corporate Responsibility,
EOI Business School (Madrid, 2 February 2018)

2. What is Food?
Essential for survival
(De Schutter & Pistor 2015)
Societal determinant (Ellul 1990)
Agent of power (Sumner 2011)
Commodity (Siegel et al. 2016)
Private Good (Samuelson 1954)
Public Good (Akram-Lodhi 2013)
Commons (Dalla Costa 2007)
Human Right (UN 1999)
Multiple meanings (Szymanski 2014)

3. Food has multiple meanings
a.- Situated (time, place, knowledge)
b.- Phenomenological (meanings
depend on the observer and
circumstances)

4. The dominant narrative in
industrial food system
“FOOD IS A COMMODITY”
Thus, the market is the best
allocation mechanism

5. Commodification
occurs when the exchangeability of any
good, in monetary terms, becomes its most
relevant dimension (Appadurai, 1986)
Multiple food dimensions superseded by its
tradeable dimension
5Photo: Dean Hochman, Flickr

6. 6
Economic School: reductionist + theoretical

7. 7
Consideration of
food as commodity
is social construct
that can / shall be
reconceived
Creative Commons
Paradigm
Shift

9. 9

10. Commons are material / non-material resources,
jointly developed and maintained by a
community/society and shared according to
community-defined rules, because they benefit
everyone and are fundamental to society’s
wellbeing
10
Photo: ukhvlid, Creative Commons, Flickr

11. Food system is the greatest driver
of Earth transformation
• Food systems accounts for 48% of land use
• 70% of water use
• 33% of total GHG emissions
• 40% relies on agriculture for their livelihood
• Phosphorus & Nitrogen exceeded Planetary
Boundaries
(Ivanova et al., 2015, Clapp, 2012)
11

12. 12
The actual way of
producing & eating
(western diets &
industrial food system)
is unsustainable
It cannot be maintained
for the next 50 years
IAASTD (2008)
UNEP (2009)
UNCTAD (2013)UK Foresight (2011)

13. The way we produce
and eat food will
greatly determine
the likelihood of
human presence on
this planet
13

14. 14
AIR
WATER
FOOD
SUNLIGHT

15. 15
The six food dimensions relevant to humans:
multi-dimensional food as commons VS mono-dimensional food as commodity
Source: Vivero-Pol (2017). http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/442

16. Food as a commons
means revalorising different
dimensions relevant to
human beings (value-in use)
& reducing the commodity
dimension (value-in
exchange)
16
Food commons are what a
society does collectively,
through private, state and self-
regulated provision, to
guarantee everybody eats
adequately in quantity and
quality everyday

17. 17
Food is essential
for human life…
… so access to food cannot
be exclusively determined
by the purchasing power

18. 18
The paradoxes of
the INDUSTRIAL
FOOD SYSTEM
Foto: Patty´s Flickr Creative Commons

19. The food industry is the 2nd biggest: A BIG CAKE
(10% GDP & 7 trillion USD in 2016)

20. 20
815 MILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE

21. 21

22. 22
157 million chronically
malnourished
19 million severely
wasted children
HUNGER is largest
contributor (35%)
to child mortality
1.4 BILLION OVERWEIGHT
(300 MILLION OBESE)
2.3 BILLION MALNOURISHED PEOPLE – WE EAT BADLY

23. 23

24. 24
EU Food Charity
Non universal
Non accountable
Non demandable
No right holders
and duty bearers
Money-restricted
3.8 Billion €
in 7 years

25. 25
HUNGER IN THE US

26. 26

27. 27
Food System Paradoxes
FOOD PRODUCERS STAY HUNGRY
815 million hungry people, or more (SPI 2013)
70% are food producers
FOOD KILLS PEOPLE
Food-related diseases are a primary cause of
death (6.5 M deaths per year).
FOOD IS (INCREASINGLY) NOT
FOR HUMANS
47% of food for human consumption,
FOOD IS WASTED
1.3 billion tons end up in the garbage every
year (1/3 of global food production) enough
to feed 600 million hungry people.
Foto: Fringe Hoj Flickr Creative Commons

28. 28
Only the economic dimension
Objectification & commodification of food:
Food is a good meant to maximize its utility
Every food has a price
Maximizing profit not nutrition
(value in exchange dissociated from value in use)
Food is rival & excludable
Economic concept VS political, legal and
historical approaches
Food access is the main problem
Ample consensus in science & policy makers:
access is limited by price, law & property

29. 29
Planetary
Boundaries
Climate Change
Oil Peak
Radical change
UK Gov
IAASTD
Business as usual
Increase productivity
Improve access

30. 30
The TRANSITION towards a fairer & more sustainable
food system needs a different narrative
Recognizing & valuing the multiple dimensions of
food = FOOD AS A COMMONS

31. TRANSITION MOVEMENT
Contemporary collective
actions for food
(urban consumers)
Alter-hegemonic + gradual

32. 32
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Mostly rural food producers
(family farms),
Valuing multiple dimensions
(food is NOT a commodity)
Customary commons-based
food systems
Ideological counter-hegemomic struggle
Foto:IanMackenzie
Foto:F

33. 33
If we could imagine a good
food system, how would it be?

34. Social Market
Enterprises
Supply-demand
Food as private good
Public
Private
Collective actions
Communities
Reciprocity
Food as common good
Partner State
Redistribution Citizens welfare
Food as public good
Tri-centric
Governance of
Food
Commons
Systems
Incentives, subsidies,
Enabling legal
frameworks
Limiting privatization
of commons
Farmers as civil
servants
Banning food
speculation
Minimum free food for
all citizens
Local purchase
Rights-based Food
banks

35. Proposals
for an EU
COMMON
FOOD
POLICY
35

36. To guarantee school
meals for all students in
public schools
36

37. To support local purchase
(small farming, agro-
ecology & cooperatives) to
satisfy food needs of
municipal premises
37

38. Stricter & innovative rules to
avoid food waste
To recycle all expired food (i.e. France)
Supporting citizens´ collective actions to
reduced waste,
promote food sharing
and co-producing
38

39. Shifting from charitable food
(Food Banks) to food as right
(Universal Food Coverage)
A food bank network that is
universal, accountable, compulsory
and not voluntary, random, targeted
39

40. Compulsory rooftop
greening for every new
building
(with edibles, non-edibles)
40

41. Establishing bakeries
where every citizen
can get access to a
bread loaf every day
(if needed or willing to)
41

42. Encourage Food Policy
Councils (open membership
to citizens) through
participatory democracies,
financial seed capital and
enabling laws42

43. Set target for food provisioning in
2030
(Food Council)
• 60% private sector
• 25% self-production (collective
actions)
• 15% state-provisioning (public
buildings, destitute people,
unemployed families) through
Universal Food Coverage
43

44. 44
Include the
Right to Food in
Constitution as
fundamental
right
(water as well)

45. 45
FOOD COMMONS: A Narrative of
convergence for customary food
systems and contemporary ones

46. Food shall be valued/ governed
as a commons because is vital
to individuals & cornerstone of
societies. It cannot be left only
to markets
46
Shift in the excludability feature:
from “can be excluded” to “ought not to be
excluded” (O’Neill, 2001)

47. COMMONING CREATES
THE COMMONS
Dardot & Laval, 2014

48. Food as a commons
means revalorising different
dimensions relevant to
human beings (value-in use)
& reducing the commodity
dimension (value-in
exchange)
48

49. 49
Davis & Dixon (2012)
Circa 3000 yrs exploited
as a commons…

50. Montes Veciñais
en man común
(Spain)

51. La Partecipanza Agraria de Nonantola
• Collective Ownership of Agricultural Land in Emilia
Romagna
• Almost 1000 years: Carta del 1058 dell’Abate
Gotescalco, granting inhabitants of Nonantola the
user´s rights over arable land within the municipal
territory (now, 760 hectare)
• Guiding values: Solidarity, Respect, Identity, Equality.
• “Boccas” are raffled every 18 years within
descendents still inhabiting Nonantola.

52. Water Tribunal of
Valencia Huertas (one
of oldest juridical institutions)

53. Hazas de la
Suerte
Vejer de la Frontera (Spain)
Two entitlements: cultivate & benefit
Established 1288 by King Sancho IV
3500 hectare, 232 allotments, 13,000
inhabitants (raffles yrs per
generations)

54. 54
Territories of
Commons
5% of Europe (12 M Ha of
utilised agricultural area)
More in coastal and forested
areas
9% France
25% of Galicia is onwed in communal
property
Not just private-state duopoly

55. 55
Re-considering FOOD as a
COMMONS may be unattainable
but…
John Maynard Keynes
British economist (1883-1946)
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing
new ideas as in escaping from old ones”
Marcel Proust
French writer (1871-1922)
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in
seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes”

56. 56

57. 57

58. Chapter 3

59. Chapter 4

60. Chapter 5

61. Chapter 6

62. 62
I am eager to exchange on
“Food as a Commons”
Many uncertainties and gaps
remain to be developed in a
common way combining
praxis with normative social
constructs
@joselviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
EMAIL: joseluisvivero@gmail.com