Does Food Sovereignty Promote National Food Security?

Introduction

Food is a biological necessity for each of us. We benefit from the protections offered by the right to food and food security, which is incorporated into international law.^[1] Food is also often a cultural icon that is inextricably related to community and essential to a people’s way of life, in line with the meaning of food sovereignty.^[2] This broader understanding of food is recognized by the United Nations in its recent interpretations of the right to food.^[3]

Countries adopting a more forward-looking approach to satisfying national and local food needs consider food sovereignty a more appropriate strategy as compared to food security. These countries view selected agricultural products as essential for their population’s food security (especially availability and accessibility) and traditional diet. Some governments may employ trade measures such as import and export restrictions to meet local food needs and protect these vital foods. However, this approach runs counter to the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO), free trade principles, and the potential role of imported food, all of which food security policy implicitly recognizes.^[4]

Thus, the new approach coming out of these countries represents a shift ­– sometimes subtle, sometimes aggressive – from food security to food sovereignty. Despite potentially conflicting with international trade law, these food sovereignty restrictions may represent an emerging strategic approach.

Food Sovereignty

Food sovereignty is a multifaceted concept centered on food, people, and self-reliance. It is an alternative model for agriculture and trade, prioritizing local control and sustainability. According to the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, food sovereignty "recognizes all the dimensions of a healthy, ethical and just food system…[and] that control over the food system needs to remain in the hands of farmers, for whom farming is both a way of life and a means of producing food."^[5]

It could be argued that food sovereignty is consistent with the United Nations Charter, particularly Chapter IX and the Preamble.^[6] The latter notes the desire of Members to "promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom."^[7] The concept also recognizes the right to food as incorporated into the rules of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), whose interpretation of the right to food implies support for food sovereignty, stating that "the right to food is a complex issue, subject to interpretation by different cultures and realities of Member Nations. FAO supports the universal values and principles that are inherent in the concept."^[8]

An early statement on food sovereignty was agreed on in 2007 at an international meeting organized by La Via Campesina in Nyéléni, Mali.^[9] The meeting announced the need to adopt a focus on food sovereignty, as spelled out in the Declaration of Nyéléni:

The concept of Food Sovereignty evolved through the experience and analysis of the people on which the world’s food supply still depends: small-scale food producers….It also recognizes the contribution of indigenous peoples, pastoralists, forest dwellers, workers and fishers to the food system. It ensures that food is produced in a culturally acceptable manner and in harmony with the ecosystem in which it is produced. This is how traditional food production systems have regenerated their soils, water, biodiversity and climactic conditions, for generations.^[10]

The Declaration defined food sovereignty as "the peoples,' countries' or state unions' 'right' to define their agricultural and food policy, without any dumping vis-à-vis third countries."^[11] Artisanal actors, fisherfolk, pastoralists, forest communities, Indigenous communities, and others joined in international meetings. They remain key in fostering awareness of food sovereignty, its meaning, and the significant role of persons and organizations with an interest and role in developing food systems. Each also emphasizes the need to recognize and incorporate traditional knowledge. Six principles have emerged from this movement: focusing on food for people, valuing food providers, localizing food systems, making control local, building knowledge and skills, and working with nature.^[12] Through the implementation of these principles, the hope is to achieve both food security and national development.

In pursuing a food sovereignty policy, a government may decide that, as a sovereign and in accord with the human right to food, it must ensure adequate supplies of basic foods, often from national production and sources. These foods may include rice, lentils and other proteins, bread, vegetables, and even onions and other foods that are important in the national diet and thus essential for the common good. As a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food emphasized, people have a human right to "adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs." This interpretation of the right to food marries food security with cultural traditions, as expressed in the Declaration of Nyéléni.

Trade Measures: A Tool to Achieve Food Sovereignty

To ensure adequate supplies of food for its people, a government must consider local, national, and global sources. An informed choice requires an understanding of the WTO rules promoting global trade (particularly Articles I, II, III, and XI) and the exceptions (particularly Articles XX, XI:2-3, and XXI) as laid out in the Marrakesh Declaration of 15 April 1994 and the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.^[13] 

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) is the international agreement governing trade among WTO members. ^[14] The WTO’s influence, however, has been weakened by the inability of the organization’s Appellate Body to function as an icon of global trade law, as envisioned at the WTO’s founding in 1994.^[15]

Article XI:1, a fundamental principle of trade law carried over from the GATT 1948, is important to food sovereignty. It states that "No prohibitions or restrictions other than duties, taxes or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, import or export licenses or other measures, shall be instituted or maintained [on imports or exports]."^[16]

Many governments plan to employ barriers to the import or export of food to ensure food security and the common good. However, this approach can conflict with decades of multilateral free and fair-trade rules, such as Article XI, and the economic principles underpinning the promotion of global trade, culminating in the GATT 1994.^[17]

Article X:1 brings under the WTO’s jurisdiction non-tariff barriers like quantitative restrictions or quotas, licenses, import and export restrictions, and other measures, thus limiting a government’s options. Article X:1 extends beyond laws or regulations to "measures" and "restrictions." These broad terms enlarge the range of national measures brought within the disciplines of trade law and subject to WTO litigation, where the exemptions under Articles XI:2, XX, and XXI may be raised.^[18]

Numerous WTO Panel and AB reports have interpreted the meaning and scope of Article XI:1, with some cases specifically addressing food and agriculture. These cases, including several related to import licensing, illustrate the importance of Article XI to trade law and the need to carefully analyze its text when developing food sovereignty policies.^[19]   

Trade Restrictions to Ensure Local Food Security

Many countries enact trade measures, often temporarily, to ensure local food security.^[20] India serves as a paradigm of this approach.^[21] In August 2023, India announced temporary restrictions on rice exports, including taxes, bans, an export duty, quantitative restrictions, certification requirements, a mandatory request from the importing country, and "permission" to export. While some of these measures, such as mandatory permission, appear to violate Article X:1’s prohibition on non-tariff trade barriers, they might be justified under exceptions outlined in Article XI:2 (a) and (b). These exceptions allow for measures to control and limit exports to address concerns about local food availability and prices.

Trade restrictions may affect local and export prices. For instance, in July 2023, India implemented a minimum export price on basmati rice to influence local prices.^[22] Similarly, its 20 percent duty on exports of parboiled rice could reduce shipments of India’s rice and lift global rice prices.^[23] Furthermore, an export duty of 40 percent on onions could improve supply in the domestic market.^[24]

The recent case of India’s restrictions on onion exports illustrates the interplay between food security and regulatory concerns. While India initially prohibited most onion exports until March 2024, an official notification also allowed for potential exceptions upon request from importing countries.^[25] However, these exceptions came with conditions, including minimum export prices and an export duty, designed to check price increases and improve supplies in the domestic market. These actions illustrate the range of Article XI measures that must be understood and considered, including the availability of XI:2 exceptions.

Conclusion

Food sovereignty is a step beyond food security. It is more comprehensive, holistic, flexible, and inclusive. Still, ensuring the right to food and food security is among its essential elements. The national policies and measures adopted for food sovereignty must be consistent with global trade law, a commitment sometimes difficult to maintain. While often implemented through trade restrictions, including export or import bans, these measures can clash with free trade principles. Food sovereignty is not universally accepted as a goal in part because of its expansive scope and acceptance of occasional trade restrictions. Nevertheless, as climate change, conflicts, and other major challenges to food availability and access impact people and pressure governments to act, more countries might employ trade measures to create a more national food landscape that is more responsive to national food needs and culture.

 

Marsha Echols is a Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC., and Director of the World Food Law Institute (a non-profit organization). The author would like to thank Jazzib Akhtar for his invaluable input and support with this article.

 

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^[1] The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, 2002. According to FAO, food security exists "when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. It is a precondition for the full enjoyment of the right to food." UN General Assembly, Resolution 217A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A/RES/217(III) (December 10, 1948), https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 11 (Dec. 16, 1966), https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-3&chapter=4&clang=_en.

^[2]Guntra Aistara, "Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature, and Community," The Journal of Peasant Studies 40, no. 1 (2013).

^[3] Special Rapporteur on the right to food, About the right to food and human rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-food/about-right-food-and-human-rights.
U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food explained that the “right to food is the right to have regular, permanent and unobstructed access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free from anxiety.”

^[4] "Agriculture - Food Security." World Trade Organization (WTO),  https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/agric_e/food_security_e.htm.

^[5] Food Sovereignty Systems: Feeding the World, Regenerating Ecosystems, Rebuilding Communities. Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), 2011 http://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AFSA-Document.pdf 

^[6] United Nations Charter. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] "Right to food | FAO Terminology Portal." Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.fao.org/faoterm/collection/right-to-food/en/.

^[9] "Declaration of Nyéléni : Via Campesina." La Via Campesina - EN, February 27, 2007. https://viacampesina.org/en/declaration-of-nyi/.

^[10]Food Sovereignty Systems. AFSA.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12] "Background/History." Nyeleni Europe. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://nyeleni-eca.net/nyeleni-movement/background.

^[13] Marrakesh Declaration of 15 April 1994 and Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. World Trade Organization, 1994. https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/04-wto_e.htm

^[14] The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947). World Trade Organization, 1947. https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/gatt47_01_e.htm.

^[15]  Bernard Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis, Burning Down the House? The Appellate Body in the Centre of the WTO Crisis, in Trade in the 21^st Century: Back to the Past?, ed. Bernard M. Hoekman & Ernesto Zedillo (Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2021). https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2347.

^[16] Ibid.

^[17] WTO Analytical Index: GATT 1994 – Article XI (Practice). World Trade Organization, 1994. https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/ai17_e/gatt1994_art11_jur.pdf.
“No prohibitions or restrictions other than duties, taxes or other charges, whether made effective through quotas, import or export licenses or other measures, shall be instituted or maintained by any contracting party on the importation of any product of the territory of any other contracting party or on the exportation or sale for export of any product destined for the territory of any other contracting party.”

^[18] Ibid; WTO Analytical Index: GATT 1994 – Article XX (General Exceptions). World Trade Organization, 1994. https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/gatt_ai_e/art20_e.pdf; WTO Analytical Index: GATT 1994 – Article XXI (Security Exceptions). World Trade Organization, 1994. https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/gatt_ai_e/art21_e.pdf. Article X1:2 allows quantitative restrictions on exports to prevent or eliminate situations of scarcity. Article XX sheds light on a broad set of exceptions, including those related to public health protection. Finally, Article XXI constitutes a general exception for national security reasons.   

^[19] Cases related to import licensing include India - Quantitative Restrictions (DS90), Indonesia - Chicken Meat (DS484), EC - Bananas (DS27/AB/R27), and Korea - Various Measures on Beef (DS161).

^[20] Pratik Parija, "India Seen Keeping Rice Export Bans into 2024, Holding Up Global Price," The Economic Times, India, November 19, 2023.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//news/economy/foreign-trade/india-seen-keeping-rice-export-bans-into-2024-holding-up-global-prices/articleshow/105324980.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst.

^[21] India Bans the Export of Non-Basmati White Rice. New Delhi: Office of Agricultural Affairs, 2023. https://fas.usda.gov/data/india-india-bans-export-non-basmati-white-rice.
The most frequent users of protection measures for food over the period were China, India, Indonesia, and the Russian Federation, which together accounted for almost one-third of all trade restrictions introduced on food items since the beginning of the financial crisis.

^[22] Ibid.

^[23] Suvodeep Mukherjee, "Centre Imposes 20% Export Duty on Parboiled Rice; MEP on Basmati Rice," Business Standard, August 24, 2023. https://www.business-standard.com/economy/news/rice-exporters-who-paid-duties-before-ban-notif-can-ship-consignments-123083000577_1.html.

^[24] ET Bureau,"Government of India Imposes 40% Export Duty on Onion Exports Till December 31, 2023," The Economic Times, India,  August 19, 2023. https://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/centre-imposes-40-export-duty-on-onion/articleshow/102862342.cms.

^[25] Ibid.