Food Security: Concept, Challenges, and the Role of Attorneys

• Date: 01 July 2015

7-2015 NEWS & ANALYSIS 45 ELR 10659

A A L S C O M M E N T S

Food Security: Concept, Challenges,

and the Role of Attorneys

by Laurie Ristino

Laurie Ristino is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School.

I. Introduction

You might ask yourself why we would address the topic of

food security in the Environmental Law Reporter. After all,

isn’t food security inherently a food and ag riculture prob-

lem and, thus, the province of those legal disciplines? To

the contrary, t he concept of food security and the related

right to food that informs it are intimately tied to the

environment; accordingly, environmental law has a criti-

cal role to play. ere is no addressing global food security

without a nuanced and systems-based approach that take s

into account severa l areas of the law. Feeding a growing

global population, estimated to reach 9.6 billion by 2050,

in a changing climate without destroying our environment

is one of humanity’s greatest cha llenges. Environmental

advocates have a central role in addressing this challenge.

In this Comment, I provide a brief overview of the

concept of food security, starting with its foundation in

the internationally recognized right to food. After provid-

ing the legal framework, I describe the meta challenges to

global food security, with a particular focus on t he envi-

ronment and the role of legal practitioners.

II. The Concept of Food Security

A. The Right to Food

e right to food is arguably embedded in customary inter-

national law. In 1945, President Dwight D. Eisenhower

appointed Eleanor Roosevelt to America’s rst delegation

to t he newly chartered United Nations (U.N.). e only

woman appointed to the delegation, she served on the high-

prole Committee on Humanitarian, Social, and Cultural

Concerns, which focused its work on ref ugees and repa-

triation. In 1947, the U.N. established the Commission on

Human Rights and unanimously elected Roosevelt chair.

She led the subcommittee charged with drafting the iconic

Universal Declaration of Huma n Rights (UDHR),1 ulti-

mately presenting it for adoption in December 1948. e

1.  Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), G.A. Res. 217 (III)

A, U.N. Doc. A/RES/217 (III) (Dec. 10, 1948).

UDHR included a clause declaring a right to food, provid-

ing in Article 25, Clause 1, that:

Everyone h as the right to a standa rd of living adequate

for the health and well-being of himself and of h is fam-

ily,  , clothing, housing and medical care

and necessa ry social serv ices, and the rig ht to security in

the event of unemployment, sick ness, disability, widow-

hood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circu mstances

beyond his control.2

e UDHR is generally considered the foundation of

international huma n rights law.3 In the decades following

its adoption, the internationa l communit y has attempted

various initiatives to address the evolving issue of food

availabilit y and hunger, underscoring food security’s per-

sistence as a humanitaria n challenge and its necessity as

a right.

In 1961, the U.N. and its Food and Agriculture Organi-

zation (FAO) established the World Food Programme, the

largest organization dedicated to addressing world hunger.

In 1963, at a World Food Congress held in Washington,

D.C., President John F. Kennedy declared that the interna-

tional community was gathering to rededicate itself to the

eradication of hunger.4

A decade later, horric images of famine in Bangladesh

resulted in the rst World Food Conference in 1974 in

Rome. During this time, the concept of “food security”

emerged and marked a shift from the post-World War II

“surplus food as aid” paradigm. e Conference adopted

the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hun-

ger and Malnutrition,5 which reads in part: “Every man,

woman and child ha s the inalienable right to be free from

hunger and malnutrition in order to develop f ully and

maintain their physical and mental faculties.” e Dec-

2. Id. art. 25(1) (emphasis added).

3. United Nations, , http://

www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/hr_law.shtml (last visited May 2, 2015).

4. John F. Kennedy, , in

P  J F. K, P P, P’ O

F, S F, available at http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/

Archives/JFKPOF-044-034.aspx.

5. Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition, G.A.

Res. 3348 (XXIX) (Dec. 17, 1974), available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/

ProfessionalInterest/Pages/EradicationOfHungerAndMalnutrition.aspx.

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