Prof. Carmen G. Gonzalez
Seattle University School of Law
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 Food
Security
 Agro-biodiversity
 Climate Change
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 Nearly
800 million people
chronically undernourished
 2 billion suffer from micronutrient
deficiency
 26 percent of world’s children
stunted due to undernourishment
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80 % are small farmers in rural areas of global
South
Small farmers grow at least 70 % of world’s
food
Women, children, and indigenous peoples
disproportionately represented in the ranks
of the rural poor
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Small number of crops: 12 crops supply 80%
of the world’s dietary energy from plants
Narrow genetic base: monocultures have
supplanted traditional varieties
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Greater resistance to pests, disease, adverse
weather events
Source of germplasm to develop new crop
varieties
Future sources of food and medicine
More varied and nutritious diets
Climate change adaptation
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Increased frequency and severity of extreme
weather events
Decline in agricultural yields
Decline in productivity of fisheries
Additional pressure on scarce water resources
Tropical and subtropical regions most
affected
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Direct emissions: 11-15% global GHGs
Changes in land use: 15-18% global GHGs
Processing, transport, packaging, retail: 1520% global GHGs
Waste: 5 % global GHGs
TOTAL: 40-51% global GHGs (excludes
emissions from production of fossil fuels to
make pesticides & fertilizers and power
machinery)
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Integrates natural pest, nutrient, soil & water
management
Minimizes synthetic pesticides & fertilizers
Enhances and conserves agrobiodiversity,
including plant genetic resources, livestock,
insects and soil organisms
Uses traditional knowledge and modern
science to reduce dependence on external
inputs
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Reduces fossil-fuel based GHG
emissions
Restores degraded soils – enhances
productivity & carbon sequestration
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Increases soil’s water retention capacity –
enhances resilience to floods & droughts
Crop diversity enhances resistance to pests,
disease and extreme weather events
Promotes food security
Preserves traditional knowledge
Adopts scientific innovations
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Food insecurity due to poverty, not food
scarcity
Food insecurity is primarily rural
phenomenon
Some of the most food insecure countries are
net agricultural exporters
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Northern agricultural subsidies,
overproduction, export of “cheap” food
IMF/World Bank structural adjustment
policies
Food production dropped; dependence on
food imports increased
2007-2008 price shocks – food riots
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WTO AoA failed to curb Northern subsidies
IMF/World Bank & regional and bilateral trade
agreements required lowering of tariffs
Redirection of agricultural production to
foreign markets increased market power of
TNCs
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Speculative investment in agricultural
commodities
Biofuels boom
Land grabs in global South: TNCs, Northern
investors, middle-income Southern states
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Dispossession of small farmers
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Interference with food production
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Diversion, contamination, depletion of
water supplies
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Private contract between the host state and
the foreign investor – stabilization clause
Bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the
host state and the home state to provide
additional protection to the foreign investor
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UDHR, ICESCR, ICCPR
Respect: prevent dumping of cheap food and
dispossession through land grabbing
Protect: regulate private actors
Fulfill: meet food needs directly
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Respect – make sure trade & investment
agreements and domestic laws and policies
(e.g. biofuels mandates) do not violate right
to food in other countries
Protect – regulate TNCs and exercise voting
power at IMF/World Bank to prevent
interference with right to food of vulnerable
populations in global South
Fulfill – food aid
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Reform trade, aid, finance, investment, and
environmental policies to promote human rights
Eliminate trade-distorting agricultural subsidies
in US and EU
Phase out biofuels mandates & other incentives
Curb speculative trading in agricultural
commodity markets
Moratorium on land grabbing
Anti-competition law
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