The Right to Food Means More than Food Security

I appreciate Jagjit Plahe’s article ‘Sacrificing the Right to Food on the Altar of Free Trade, (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/39046) published by Pambazuka News. However, the otherwise excellent analysis is somewhat muddled because, as stated in Note 1, “The terms food security and the right to food are used interchangeably in this paper.” Perhaps Ms. Plahe could consult my book, Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food, published in 2005, and in particular its chapter on trade. I have also explored the relationships between the right to food and food security.

The importance of the distinction can be illustrated by reference to the first paragraph, where Plahe speaks of “developing countries having to negotiate the right to food within the World Trade Organisation.” Actually, the right to food is well established in international law, and explained authoritatively in General Comment 12 by the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. There is still room for interpretation, of course, but the right really is not up for negotiations at the WTO.

Plahe says that the developing countries’ options to address food security are seriously limited by their obligations under the Agreement on Agriculture. However, as I see it, many national governments are quite willing to sacrifice their people’s food security for what they see as other sorts of gains they might obtain by opening their trade doors. There is nothing in the Agreement that forces them to do that in a way that sacrifices their own people’s food security. Indeed, there is nothing that requires these countries to be members of the WTO. They can opt out. They have chosen to “buy in” to the stories that richer countries tell them about the benefits of trade, not fully appreciating the ways in which trade systematically benefits the rich more than the poor, steadily widening the gap between them. I wouldn’t blame this on the WTO or the Agreement on Agriculture. The poor countries need to make their own analyses, and stand up for what will work for them.

Plahe’s conclusion says, “How, when and if states can regulate trade to uphold the right to food will be determined by international trade rules, and not by international human rights standards.” That may somehow be true in terms of the economic and political pressures that are applied, but there is nothing in international law that makes it so. Indeed, the dominant view is that human rights standards prevail over international trade rules. The poor countries should insist that human rights always prevail over trade rules.