Abstract:
Food systems are processes and activities carried out for the satisfaction of the food needs of a certain population. They involve networks of stakeholders, including farmers, companies, financial institutions, public agencies and other organizations and consumers, working interdependently on the different steps of supply chains (production, processing, packaging, distribution, retailing and consumption).
They influence and are influenced by social, cultural, political, economic and environmental matters.2 One of the major challenges for humanity in the twenty-first century will be to find ways to feed the whole world’s population while at the same time coping with Earth’s capacities. There is a growing consensus that this can only be achieved by a reorientation of global food policies and related laws,
and a rethink of the operationalization of food systems so as to take full account of the complex interactions between food production, trade, environmental protection, social justice and human wellbeing at local, national and international levels.It is against this backdrop that the concept of food sustainability has emerged. It presents a holistic vision of food systems and integrates a number of food-related factors, including those of an economic, political, social, cultural and ecological nature, in assessing the performance of food systems.
3 Food sustainability also integrates general principles that inform the concept of sustainable development, especially the democratic governance of natural resources, intergenerational equity and the observation of human rights standards, the focus of this study.
At the international level, law- and policy-making relevant to food systems – and food sustainability – remain largely fragmented. The notions of – and objectives surrounding – the right to food and food security, for example, have been built into the diverse United Nations fora and agencies in different and, to a large extent, disconcerted ways, most notably the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (CESCR), the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Despite attempts to harmonize agendas, synergy has proved to be an important challenge. At the academic level, hardly any consistent discussion has taken place on the legal framework that governs (or should govern) food systems.