Sating hunger in an age of plenty : the global food governance space and its role in the establishment of an effective food security regime

Abstract

Contextualised in food security literature and globalisation literature and NGO and agency reports on food security, Sating Hunger argues that ineffective global food governance is one of the causes of worsening global hunger, in addition to issues such as the commoditisation of food, climate change effects, the financialisation of agriculture and land degradation. The global food governance literature suggests that global governance is vital to establishing a stable and effective food security regime, yet to date, no overall description of the global food governance field exists and the dynamics of the field have remained largely unexamined. Bourdieu’s Field Analysis is modified and used as a method to map out the current food governance field and identify key actors and their positions, according to measures of economic capital, political capital and ‘democratic legitimacy’ capital. Four sectors in the field are delineated; the ‘agrifood’ Trans National Corporation sector, the International Organisation sector, the Aid and Charitable Organisation sector and, marginalised at the outer limits of the field, Civil Society Organisations. The dominance of private actors in the global food governance space is revealed, and the Field Analysis also presents the Gates Foundation as a dominant governor in the field. The results from the Field Analysis are combined with interviews with ten executives from these sectors to reveal a siloed food governance field with conflicting agendas. One organisation from each sector is also examined by case study to illustrate their practices and detail the attribution of the symbolic capitals in the Field Analysis. The problem of food insecurity is then reframed and recommendations are made including establishing the Right to Food, regulation and scrutiny of agrifood corporations, reform of the food governance field and establishing a new central body in the governance space. Some policy recommendations are also made.