Crowdsourcing the world with Food as Commons: theory, policy implications, and way foward for academics and practitioners

"All over Europe and the Western world, food markets seem to be the hegemonic mechanisms to get access to food, obscuring other non-market mechanisms such as self-production, food sharing, bartering, gleaning or profit-capped market exchanges. The capitalist market narrative values food as a pure commodity whose main goal is profit-maximisation. Food commodification deprives such a vital resource from other dimensions that cannot be monetised, such as food as a human right, food as a cultural determinant, food as a sacred good or food as a natural resource produced by no one".

"Revaluing food as a public good, human right and commons (nothing but a social construct) may unlock unpermitted policies that can contribute to establish Universal Food Access (UFA) schemes in every country. Universal Food Access would mirror the particular policy mixes we enjoy in all European countries (and beyond) with regard to health and education, proposing institutional architectures where a combination of market mechanisms, public provision and civic collective actions for food can secure access to enough and adequate food to every one every day. We will explore the theoretical underpinnings of this narrative shift, the political implications and the tricentric governance mechanism that could steer that transition, laying the ground for a decade-long revolution to ensure that no one goes hungry to sleep in a world of plenty". 

Link Webex: https://bit.ly/34wING3 

Info: a.manzoni@santannapisa.it