Accounting for Hunger: The Right to Food in the Era of Globalisation(Studies in International Law)

The challenge of global hunger is now high on the agenda of governments and international policy-makers. This new work contributes to addressing that challenge, by looking at the obstacles which stand in the way of implementing a right to food in the era of globalisation. The book describes the current situation of global hunger; it considers how it relates both to the development of food systems and to the merger of the food and energy markets; and it explains how the right to food contributes to identifying solutions at the domestic and international levels. The right to food, it argues, can only be realised if governance improves at the domestic level, and if the international environment enables governments to adopt appropriate policies, for which they require a certain policy space. The essays in this book demonstrate that the current regimes of trade, investment and food aid, as well as the development of biofuels production – all of which contribute to define the international context in which states implement such reforms – should be reshaped if national efforts are to be successful. The implication is that extraterritorial human rights obligations of states (their obligations to respect the right to food beyond their national territories, for instance in their food aid, investment or trade policies), as well as the strengthening of global governance of food security (as is currently being attempted with the reform of the Committee on World Food Security in Rome), have a key role to fulfill: domestic reforms will not achieve sustainable results unless the international environment is more enabling of the efforts of governments acting individually. In this reform process, accountability both at the domestic and international level is essential if sustainable progress is to be achieved in combating global hunger.

Table of Contents:
1. Accounting for Hunger: An Introduction to the Issues Olivier De Schutter and Kaitlin Cordes Part I: Addressing Power Imbalances in the Food Systems 2. The Impact of Agribusiness Transnational Corporations on the Right to Food Kaitlin Y Cordes 3. The Transformation of Food Retail and Marginalisation of Smallholder Farmers Margaret Cowan Schmidt 4. Biofuels and the Right to Food: An uneasy partnership Ann Sofi e Cloots Part II: Trade and Aid: An Enabling International Environment 5. International Trade in Agriculture and the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter 6. How to Phase Out Rich Country Agricultural Subsidies Without Increasing Hunger in the Developing World Jennifer Mersing 7. Invoking the Right to Food in the WTO Dispute Settlement Process: The Relevance of the Right to Food to the Law of the WTO Boyan Konstantinov 8. Food Aid: How It Should Be Done Loreto Ferrer Moreu

About the Author :
Olivier De Schutter is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Professor of Law at the Université Catholique de Louvain and College of Europe, and Visiting Professor, Columbia University. Kaitlin Y Cordes is a human rights lawyer and writer who focuses on the right to food, business and human rights, and the rights of workers within the global food system.