Food, Law & the Commons

Carlo Alberto Law SeminarsUniversita di Torino

24 March 2017 – Milan

JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL PhD Research Fellow in Food Governance

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)

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The actual way of producing & eating

(western diets & industrial food

system) is unsustainableIt cannot be

maintained for the next 50 years

IAASTD (2008)

UNEP (2009)

UNCTAD (2013)

UK Foresight (2011)

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Economic Epistemology on Commons: reductionist + theoretical + ontological

Ideas/Narratives

Legal frameworks

Policy Options

Everything started with the Romans

• Res singularum (individuals)

• Res publica (state)• Res communis

(everybody) • Res nullius

(nobody)Emperor Justinian 529-533 AD

Res communes: air, running water, sea & coastlines

Cautious about superseding

proprietary rights to other rights for people to survive

“If the law stood between an individual and the loaf of bread he needed to carry on living, then the law ceased to have meaningful content”

Thomas Hobbes1588-1679

Property rights conditional to non-wastage of the good. “People should not enclose more land they could work on”

John Locke 1632-1704

My own labour (part of myself) appropriates res nullius and res communis (un-owned natural resources) by working on them.

LOCKEAN PROVISIOOne may appropriate resources if “there is enough, and as good, left in common for others”He took for granted the supply of natural resources for all

Timmermman (2014)1.- Resources are un-owned2.- Enough & as good left for others3.- Ownership is subject to non wastage

Property & Justice R artificial ideas.

No property in Nature. Social construct

Disagrees with Locke on property as extension of self through the labour exerciseDavid Hume

1711-1776

Natural property: air, land, water, wild food. “Legitimate birthright of everyman”Land tax to fund Universal Basic IncomeArtificial property: human invention. It can be distributed unequally Thomas Paine

1737-1809

Founding father of capitalism

Individual proprietary rights R pillars of free-market society & they need to be enforced in all cases & any circumstances

Human´s tendency to self-interest would bring prosperity for all.

Collective public goods would be promoted through individual selfishness Adam Smith

1723-1790

XX century Proprietary developments

• Natural rights were translated into absolute proprietary rights to destroy everybody´s natural resources

• Absolute primacy of proprietary rights over other rights (life, water, food, house)

• Without right of absolute alienation, free-markets would not work well (in theory) Coase (1969), Alchian & Demsetz (1972)

Policies and Legal frameworks are just tools serving a purpose

• Firstly, ideas; secondly, means to achieve them. Ruling elites use policies & law.

• Commons R not defined by proprietary regimes (public, private, collective)

• Commons R not defined by reductionist economic epistemologies

Policies serving a purpose plundering my share of commons to

somebody´s benefit

Who is fishing my Tuna?

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Consideration of food as

commodity is social construct

that can / shall be reconceived

WHY?Foto: Finabocci Blue Flickr Creative Commons

Paradigm Shift

Commons are material / non-material resources, jointly developed and maintained by a community/society and shared according to community-defined rules, irrespective of their mode of production (private, public or commons-based means), because they benefit everyone and are fundamental to society’s wellbeing

18Photo: ukhvlid, Creative Commons, Flickr

COMMONING CREATES THE COMMONS

Dardot & Laval, 2014

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AIR

WATER

FOOD

SUNLIGHT

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The six food dimensions relevant to humans: multi-dimensional food as commons VS mono-dimensional food as commodity

Source: Vivero-Pol (in press). http://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201701.0073/v1

EUROPA leaving many behind

because food is not a right

• 123 M poor EU people (1/4) (Oxfam, 2015)

• 50 M severe material deprivation: food, water…(EUROSTAT, 2015)

• 2009-15, + 7.5 M poor

• 30-40% children (6 EU members) below poverty line (UNICEF, 2014)

• Increasing children at school with no breakfast (UK, Netherlands, Spain)

No RtF in EU: How is that possible?• NOT in European Social Charter• NOT in any EU constitution• NOT in MDGs & SDGs narrative

• Proposal in Belgium: National Food Policy Council including whole food chain (Eggen, 2014)

• Proposal in Spain: RtF in Constitution• European Citizen´s Initiative + EP:

water as human right + commons • Universal Food Coverage (non-existing)

Food as a commodity mono-dimensional approach whereby economic dimension of food prevails and overshadows non-economic dimensions.

Price (value-in-exchange)

25Photo: Dean Hochman, Flickr

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

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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

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Food is essential for human life…

… so access to food cannot be exclusively

determined by the purchasing power

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De-constructing Food-related

Elements: everything is

commons but cultivated food

and copyrighted patents

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1. Cultivated Food is a

private good

Completly produced by

private means: private

landholdings, copyrighted seeds and

agro-chemicals,

machineries

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2. Traditional agricultural

knowledge

Fotos: Jose Luis Vivero

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3. Science-based agricultural

knowledge by national

institutions Public copyrights

Universities

National Research

Institutions

Foto: Argonne National Laboratory

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4. Cuisine, recipes & national

gastronomy

Foto: Carla Bqneko

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5. Edible wild plants and animals

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6. Genetic Resources for

Food and Agriculture

Seeds are commons

Patents prevent innovation

(Benkler, 2006)

Fashion world and top cuisine are

rather innovative without patenting

systems

ITPGRFA made seeds a global common good

Foto: Edd.ie

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7. Food safety considerations (Codex

Alimentarius)

Foto

: Li

anne

M

ilton

Foto: Mariano

Bonora

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8. Good nutrition & public health

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9. Extreme food price

fluctuations

Foto: Megan Morgavan

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What if food is

considered a

commons…

Banning futures trade speculation

Controlling land grabbing, land

evictions

Binding Food Treaties

Legislating collective rights

Avoiding biopiracy, patenting of life

forms,

Minimising copyrighted agriculture

Combating oligopolies of agri-

food chains

Social MarketEnterprisesSupply-demand Food as private good

Public

Private

Not f

or p

rofitForm

alFo

r pro

fitInform

alCollective actionsCommunitiesReciprocityFood as common good

Partner StateRedistribution Citizens welfareFood 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 purchaseRights-based Food

banks

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I am eager to exchange on right to food, hunger

eradication & food as a commons

@joselviveropol

joseluisviveropol

http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com

http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com

Jose Luis Vivero Poljoseluisvivero@gmail.com

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.

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)

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Universita Agraria Medieval institution to govern collective lands (Sacrofano, Italy)

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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

Territories of Commons

• Climate adapted Food commons

• Stewarding Nature & Biodiversity

• Nurturing community, citizenship & values

• Intergenerational sustainability

• Public goods & services (oxygen, soil, wáter)

• Participatory Governing Systems

• Cultural Heritage & Collective Knowledge

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2014: CAP (40% of EU Budget) 52 Billion EUR

2013 CAP Reform: No single mention to commons (water, territories, land, seeds, food, knowledge)

POLICY & LEGAL

OPTIONS with new narrative of Food as Commons

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To guarantee school meals for all

students in public schools

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To support local purchase (small farming, agro-ecology & cooperatives) to satisfy food needs of municipal premises 49

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-producing50

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

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

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

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Encourage Food Policy Councils (open

membership to citizens) through participatory

democracies, financial seed capital and enabling

laws54

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 

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