This lectures proposes a different normative regard on food, not as a mono-dimensional commodity that can only be accesed through money, but as a multi-dimensional commons that shall be governed by people (all eaters, some producers), partner States and profit-restricted social enterprises to guarantee that everybody has access to food by different means. Since food systems are main drivers of Earth destruction, we need to radically transform the way we produce and eat food to keep on living in this planet without exhausting the natural resources that are vital for human life: food, water and air. This lecture provides policy options for such a transition towards a fairer and more sustainable food system that feeds us all.

1. 1
JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL
PhD Research Fellow
in Food Governance
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, 31 Janvier 2017)

2. 2
Consideration of
food as commodity
is social construct
that can / shall be
reconceived
WHY?
Creative Commons
Paradigm
Shift

3. 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)
3

4. 4
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)

5. The way we produce
and eat food will
greatly determine
the likelihood of
human presence on
this planet
5

6. 6
PRIMUM VIVERE DEINDE
PHILOSOPHARE
#1. Definitions and schools of thought on the common
#3. The PARADOXES of the Global Food System
#2. Defining FOOD AS A COMMONS: normative social c
#4. How to scale up INNOVATIVE & CUSTOMARY
food alternatives

7. 7

8. 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
8
Photo: ukhvlid, Creative Commons, Flickr

9. 9
Economic School: reductionist + theoretical

10. 10
25% of Galicia is onwed
in communal property
Private
property
Legal School

11. 11
AIR
WATER
FOOD
SUNLIGHT

12. 12
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

13. Food as a commodity
mono-dimensional approach whereby
economic dimension of food prevails and
overshadows non-economic dimensions.
Price (value-in-exchange)
13Photo: Dean Hochman, Flickr

14. Food as a commons
means revalorising different
dimensions relevant to
human beings (value-in use)
& reducing the commodity
dimension (value-in
exchange)
14
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

15. 15
Food is essential
for human life…
… so access to food cannot
be exclusively determined
by the purchasing power

16. 16
The paradoxes of
the INDUSTRIAL
FOOD SYSTEM
Foto: Patty´s Flickr Creative Commons

17. The food industry is the 2nd biggest: A BIG CAKE
(10% GDP & 7 trillion USD in 2015)

18. 18
800 MILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE

19. 19
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

20. 20
EU Food Charity
Non universal
Non accountable
Non demandable
No right holders
and duty bearers
Money-restricted
3.8 Billion €
in 7 years

21. 21

22. 22
HUNGER IN THE US

23. 23

24. 24
Food System Paradoxes
FOOD PRODUCERS STAY HUNGRY
800 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

25. 25
Only the economic dimension
Objectification & commodification of food,
depriving & neglecting the other dimensions
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

26. 26
Planetary
Boundaries
Climate Change
Oil Peak
Radical change
UK Gov
IAASTD
Business as usual
Increase productivity
Improve access

27. 27
The TRANSITION towards a fairer & more sustainable
food system needs a different narrative
Recognizing & valuing the multiple dimensions of
food = FOOD AS A COMMONS

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

29. 29
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Mostly rural food producers
(family farms),
Valuing multiple dimensions
(food is NOT a commons)
Customary commons-based
food systems
Ideological counter-hegemomic struggle
Foto:IanMackenzie
Foto:F

30. 30

31. 31
Food as a new old
commons
(innovative + historic)
Sustainable
agricultural practices
(agro-ecology)
Open-source
knowledge (creative
commons licenses)
Polycentric
governance (states,
enterprises, civic
actions)

32. 32
If we could imagine a good
food system, how would it be?

33. 33

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
Considering FOOD as a
COMMONS may be utopical…
But is the right thing to do and
the best goal to aspire
Eduardo Galeano
Uruguayan writer and activist
“Utopia lies at the horizon.
When I draw nearer by two steps,
it retreats two steps.
No matter how far I go, I can never reach it.
What, then, is the purpose of utopia?
It is to cause us to advance.”

45. 45
I am eager to exchange on food as
a commons
Many uncertainties & gaps remain
to be developed in a common way
combining praxis with normative
social constructs
@joselviveropol
http://hambreyderechoshumanos.blogspot.com
http://hungerpolitics.wordpress.com
Jose Luis Vivero
Pol
joseluisvivero@gmail.com