Global food governance in an era of crisis: Lessons from the United Nations Committee on World Food Security

Abstract

The increasingly destructive impacts that today’s global food system visits upon local food provision, biodiversity, and the environment have been highlighted by a number of contributors in this special issue. Viewed through a global governance lens, public responsibility has been progressively sold out to markets and corporations while the front-line actors of food provision—families, communities, and small-scale producers—have been disempowered. Decisions that affect food security are most often taken at tables located behind closed doors, from which the vulnerable are excluded. The global food system is largely orchestrated by powerful corporate, financial, and political actors to serve their own interests.

Keywords

• governance
• un
• world food security