This book fills a gap in the literature by setting food security in the context of evolving glob... more This book fills a gap in the literature by setting food security in the context of evolving global food governance. Today’s food system generates hunger alongside of food waste, burgeoning health problems, massive greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing on extensive practice, research and advocacy, McKeon explains how we have gotten here and suggests how we could set things straight. The book applies food system analysis to reviewing how the international community has addressed food issues since WWII. It explains how actors link up in corporate global food chains and in the local food systems that feed most people. It unpacks relevant paradigms – from productivism to food sovereignty – and highlights the significance of adopting a rights-based approach. It describes how communities around the world are protecting their access to resources and building better ways of producing and accessing food. It discusses the reformed Committee on World Food Security, a uniquely inclusive global policy forum, and how it could be supportive of efforts from the base. It closes by identifying terrains on which work is needed – by all of us - to adapt the practice of democratic public sphere and accountable governance to a global dimension and extend its authority to the world of markets and corporations.
Mit den Unruhen, die 2007/2008 infolge der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise viele Hauptstadte rund um den... more Mit den Unruhen, die 2007/2008 infolge der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise viele Hauptstadte rund um den Globus erschutterten, wurde auch die Existenz eines bedenklichen Governance-Vakuums offenbar. Die Vorschlage, die die internationale Gemeinschaft auf den Tisch brachte, um dieses Vakuum zu fullen, waren uberwiegend administrativer Natur (wie die vom damaligen UNGeneralsekretar Ban Ki-moon einberufene Hochrangige Arbeitsgruppe zur Globalen Ernahrungssicherung) oder investitionsgesteuert (wie die von den G8 initiierte Globale Partnerschaft fur Landwirtschaft und Ernahrungssicherung). Die einzige Bemuhung, mit politischen Masnahmen bei den Ursachen der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise anzusetzen, bestand in der Anregung, den Ausschuss fur Welternahrungssicherheit der Vereinten Nationen (UN Committee on World Food Security, CFS) zu reformieren. Mehrere G77-Lander sowie die Ernahrungs- und Landwirtschaftsorganisation der Vereinten Nationen (FAO) traten fur diesen Vorschlag ein. Schlieslich setzte si...
Food has constituted a significant terrain for recasting relationships between governmental insti... more Food has constituted a significant terrain for recasting relationships between governmental institutions and civil society over the past two decades. Neo-liberal structural adjustment and trade policies have facilitated control of the world’s food system by increasingly concentrated agrifood corporations, contributing to the eviction of millions of small-scale producers from their land and the disempowerment of consumers. Movements have sprung up around the world to contest these developments in the name of food sovereignty—the right of peoples to determine their food policies. Their engagement has helped to transform the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) into an inclusive policy forum in which they are seeking normative guidance that can help protect their localized food systems. This chapter analyses the CFS after seven years of life as a laboratory of dynamic relations among the different constituencies that compose the food movement and of their dialectic interactions with the governmental, multilateral, and private sector actors who co-habit the CFS space. Lessons learned include the importance of addressing power imbalances among actors and of maintaining clarity regarding the roles, responsibilities and interests of the state and the private sector in mechanisms such as public–private partnerships and multi-stakeholder platforms.
* Part I: Setting the Stage ** 1. Scope and Methodology ** 2. A World Context in Flux: Challenges... more * Part I: Setting the Stage ** 1. Scope and Methodology ** 2. A World Context in Flux: Challenges to Multilateralism and the Quest for Global Governance ** 3. Global Actors in Evolution: From International NGOs to Transnational Social Movements ** 4. Getting the Terms Straight * Part II: The FAO, Civil Society and the Global Governance of Food and Agriculture ** 5. Background ** 6. Civil Society and the World Food Summit ** 7. From Commitments to Action: Civil Society and the FAO on the Trail of Elusive Political Will ** 8. The Global Food Crisis: A Political Opportunity for Civil Society? * Part III: Comparative Look at UN-Civil Society Engagement ** 9. Civil Society Participation in Global Policy Forums ** 10. Civil Society and Summit Follow-up: Linking Global Commitments and Local Action ** 11. Governance of UN-Civil Society Relations: Interface Mechanisms and the Issues of Representativity, Legitimacy and Accountability ** 12. UN Reform Proposals, the Millennium Development Goals and Civil Society: Are We on the Right Track? * Part IV: Conclusions and Open Issues ** 13. Major Challenges for the United Nations in its Relations with Civil Society ** 14. Issues for Further Investigation * Bibliography * Annex: Cross-System Survey Responding Entities * Index
This book fills a gap in the literature by setting food security in the context of evolving glob... more This book fills a gap in the literature by setting food security in the context of evolving global food governance. Today’s food system generates hunger alongside of food waste, burgeoning health problems, massive greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing on extensive practice, research and advocacy, McKeon explains how we have gotten here and suggests how we could set things straight. The book applies food system analysis to reviewing how the international community has addressed food issues since WWII. It explains how actors link up in corporate global food chains and in the local food systems that feed most people. It unpacks relevant paradigms – from productivism to food sovereignty – and highlights the significance of adopting a rights-based approach. It describes how communities around the world are protecting their access to resources and building better ways of producing and accessing food. It discusses the reformed Committee on World Food Security, a uniquely inclusive global policy forum, and how it could be supportive of efforts from the base. It closes by identifying terrains on which work is needed – by all of us - to adapt the practice of democratic public sphere and accountable governance to a global dimension and extend its authority to the world of markets and corporations.
Mit den Unruhen, die 2007/2008 infolge der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise viele Hauptstadte rund um den... more Mit den Unruhen, die 2007/2008 infolge der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise viele Hauptstadte rund um den Globus erschutterten, wurde auch die Existenz eines bedenklichen Governance-Vakuums offenbar. Die Vorschlage, die die internationale Gemeinschaft auf den Tisch brachte, um dieses Vakuum zu fullen, waren uberwiegend administrativer Natur (wie die vom damaligen UNGeneralsekretar Ban Ki-moon einberufene Hochrangige Arbeitsgruppe zur Globalen Ernahrungssicherung) oder investitionsgesteuert (wie die von den G8 initiierte Globale Partnerschaft fur Landwirtschaft und Ernahrungssicherung). Die einzige Bemuhung, mit politischen Masnahmen bei den Ursachen der Nahrungsmittelpreiskrise anzusetzen, bestand in der Anregung, den Ausschuss fur Welternahrungssicherheit der Vereinten Nationen (UN Committee on World Food Security, CFS) zu reformieren. Mehrere G77-Lander sowie die Ernahrungs- und Landwirtschaftsorganisation der Vereinten Nationen (FAO) traten fur diesen Vorschlag ein. Schlieslich setzte si...
Food has constituted a significant terrain for recasting relationships between governmental insti... more Food has constituted a significant terrain for recasting relationships between governmental institutions and civil society over the past two decades. Neo-liberal structural adjustment and trade policies have facilitated control of the world’s food system by increasingly concentrated agrifood corporations, contributing to the eviction of millions of small-scale producers from their land and the disempowerment of consumers. Movements have sprung up around the world to contest these developments in the name of food sovereignty—the right of peoples to determine their food policies. Their engagement has helped to transform the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) into an inclusive policy forum in which they are seeking normative guidance that can help protect their localized food systems. This chapter analyses the CFS after seven years of life as a laboratory of dynamic relations among the different constituencies that compose the food movement and of their dialectic interactions with the governmental, multilateral, and private sector actors who co-habit the CFS space. Lessons learned include the importance of addressing power imbalances among actors and of maintaining clarity regarding the roles, responsibilities and interests of the state and the private sector in mechanisms such as public–private partnerships and multi-stakeholder platforms.
* Part I: Setting the Stage ** 1. Scope and Methodology ** 2. A World Context in Flux: Challenges... more * Part I: Setting the Stage ** 1. Scope and Methodology ** 2. A World Context in Flux: Challenges to Multilateralism and the Quest for Global Governance ** 3. Global Actors in Evolution: From International NGOs to Transnational Social Movements ** 4. Getting the Terms Straight * Part II: The FAO, Civil Society and the Global Governance of Food and Agriculture ** 5. Background ** 6. Civil Society and the World Food Summit ** 7. From Commitments to Action: Civil Society and the FAO on the Trail of Elusive Political Will ** 8. The Global Food Crisis: A Political Opportunity for Civil Society? * Part III: Comparative Look at UN-Civil Society Engagement ** 9. Civil Society Participation in Global Policy Forums ** 10. Civil Society and Summit Follow-up: Linking Global Commitments and Local Action ** 11. Governance of UN-Civil Society Relations: Interface Mechanisms and the Issues of Representativity, Legitimacy and Accountability ** 12. UN Reform Proposals, the Millennium Development Goals and Civil Society: Are We on the Right Track? * Part IV: Conclusions and Open Issues ** 13. Major Challenges for the United Nations in its Relations with Civil Society ** 14. Issues for Further Investigation * Bibliography * Annex: Cross-System Survey Responding Entities * Index
However, the solutions being put forward by the FSS to address these problems are predominantly n... more However, the solutions being put forward by the FSS to address these problems are predominantly new extensions of old approaches, cloaked in rhetoric of “innovation.” Since the proposed solutions are silent on the underlying drivers of the aforementioned crises, they are unlikely to address the root causes of food insecurity: systemic inequality, concentrated power, and governance that works for corporations and elites rather than to support workers and ecological integrity. Indeed, FSS solutions are very likely to backfire. Innumerable examples exist of large-scale agricultural investment schemes which were touted as “transformative” yet which delivered ecological and social harm instead, from the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) of Tanzania1 to commercial shrimp operations in Bangladesh,2 among many others.
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Books by Nora McKeon
The book applies food system analysis to reviewing how the international community has addressed food issues since WWII. It explains how actors link up in corporate global food chains and in the local food systems that feed most people. It unpacks relevant paradigms – from productivism to food sovereignty – and highlights the significance of adopting a rights-based approach. It describes how communities around the world are protecting their access to resources and building better ways of producing and accessing food. It discusses the reformed Committee on World Food Security, a uniquely inclusive global policy forum, and how it could be supportive of efforts from the base. It closes by identifying terrains on which work is needed – by all of us - to adapt the practice of democratic public sphere and accountable governance to a global dimension and extend its authority to the world of markets and corporations.
Papers by Nora McKeon
The book applies food system analysis to reviewing how the international community has addressed food issues since WWII. It explains how actors link up in corporate global food chains and in the local food systems that feed most people. It unpacks relevant paradigms – from productivism to food sovereignty – and highlights the significance of adopting a rights-based approach. It describes how communities around the world are protecting their access to resources and building better ways of producing and accessing food. It discusses the reformed Committee on World Food Security, a uniquely inclusive global policy forum, and how it could be supportive of efforts from the base. It closes by identifying terrains on which work is needed – by all of us - to adapt the practice of democratic public sphere and accountable governance to a global dimension and extend its authority to the world of markets and corporations.