Theorising consumption in food sovereignty for inclusive food security

粮食主权消费理论促进包容性粮食安全

• 批准号: 2602295
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2602295
• 关键词: Theorising; consumption; food; sovereignty; inclusive

Capital accumulation by big corporations in the neoliberal food system has hindered the freedom of farmers to determine what and how to produce (Yan, 2020). This has been enabled through the commodification, globalisation, and industrialisation of production under the corporate food regime (McMichael, 2009; 2013). Food sovereignty (FS) proposes an alternative food system model by promoting the right of peoples to healthy, culturally appropriate, and sustainably produced food, and to determine their own food policies (Nyeleni, 2007). This is anchored on the premise that the 'right to produce' is central to the valued life of farmers and peasants (Bernstein, 2014). FS resists the export and trade orientation of the commodified and globalised production system as well as the 'dumping' of cheap imports under the 'free market' policies facilitated by international financial institutions, which have led to indebtedness, dispossession, and hunger among farmers in the Global South (LVC, 2003). Consequently, FS subsumes capital accumulation under the social reproduction of producers by securing food for self-provisioning and domestic self-sufficiency whilst averting the environmental degradation caused by industrial agriculture practices and preserving the 'peasant way' of farming (Nyeleni, 2007). But once the freedom to produce has been secured, how should food surpluses be distributed to the rest of the community? And are farmers obligated to produce such surpluses in the first place? Whilst the right of consumers to decide what to eat has been included in the FS definition (LVC, 2003), Bernstein (2014) argues that food access, especially by low-income non-producers, has not been thoroughly explicated in the FS literature, given the peasant orientation of the model. Patel (2007) urges consumers to choose locally and sustainably produced food instead of cheaper industrial imports to directly help small-scale producers, noting that structural changes may take time to happen. This is under the assumption, however, that people have the capability to secure their food choices, undermining the poor who may be forced to patronise cheap processed food at the expense of local producers just to survive. This raises the question: how should the relationship between producers and consumers and their mutual obligations be conceptualised in FS to inclusively address hunger?This research aims to formulate a consumption theory to address the identified gap in the FS literature. The said theory will serve as basis for the development of a food policy framework for a case study site, particularly the Philippines. These aims are articulated in the primary research question: how should consumption in food sovereignty be conceptualised to achieve inclusive food security? To answer this question, a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques will be employed in the three major components of the research: (1) theory development; (2) theory applicability testing in the Philippine context; and (3) community-based food policy framework formulation. Explicating consumption in FS will add to the existing literature on neoliberal food system alternatives and will aid in the conceptualisation of a more holistic strategy to address hunger. Moreover, examining consumption vis-à-vis the unfreedoms faced by smallholder farmers and peasants highlights the crucial relationship between producers and consumers in creating an equitable and sustainable food system. Hence, the research will not only contribute to the advancement of the development theory but will also bring attention of political economy scholars to the impacts of community level power dynamics in perpetuating and addressing inequality, beyond the influence of the state and the global order.

大公司在新自由主义食品体系中的资本积累阻碍了农民决定生产什么和如何生产的自由(严，2020)。这是通过企业食品制度下生产的商品化、全球化和工业化实现的(McMichael，2009；2013)。粮食主权(FS)提出了一种替代粮食系统模式，通过促进人民获得健康的、文化上适当的和可持续生产的粮食的权利，并决定他们自己的粮食政策(Nyeleni，2007)。这是以“生产权”是农民和农民宝贵生活的核心这一前提为基础的(Bernstein，2014)。金融服务抵制商品化和全球化生产体系的出口和贸易导向，以及在国际金融机构推动的“自由市场”政策下“倾销”廉价进口商品，这导致了全球南方农民的负债、财产丧失和饥饿(LVC，2003)。因此，通过确保自给自足和国内自给自足的粮食，同时避免工业化农业做法造成的环境退化和保护“农民耕作方式”，FS将资本积累归入生产者的社会再生产(Nyeleni，2007)。但是，一旦获得了生产自由，剩余的粮食应该如何分配给社会其他人呢？农民有义务从一开始就生产出这样的盈余吗？虽然消费者决定吃什么的权利已经包括在FS定义中(LVC，2003)，但Bernstein(2014)认为，鉴于该模式的农民取向，FS文献中没有彻底解释食品获取，特别是低收入非生产者的食品获取。Patel(2007)敦促消费者选择当地和可持续生产的食品，而不是更便宜的工业进口，以直接帮助小规模生产者，并指出结构性变化可能需要时间来发生。然而，这是在人们有能力确保自己的食物选择的假设下进行的，这损害了穷人的利益，他们可能会为了生存而被迫购买廉价的加工食品，而牺牲当地生产商的利益。这就提出了一个问题：生产者和消费者之间的关系以及他们的共同义务应该如何在FS中概念化，以包含饥饿问题？本研究旨在制定一个消费理论，以解决FS文献中发现的差距。上述理论将作为为个案研究地点，特别是菲律宾制定粮食政策框架的基础。这些目标在主要的研究问题中得到了阐述：应该如何对粮食主权中的消费进行概念化，以实现包容性粮食安全？为了回答这个问题，将在研究的三个主要组成部分中使用定性和定量技术相结合：(1)理论发展；(2)在菲律宾背景下的理论适用性测试；(3)基于社区的食品政策框架制定。解释FS的消费将增加现有关于新自由主义食物系统替代方案的文献，并将有助于概念化更全面的战略来解决饥饿问题。此外，将消费与小农和农民面临的不自由相比较，突出了生产者和消费者之间在创造公平和可持续的粮食系统方面的关键关系。因此，这项研究不仅有助于发展理论的发展，而且将引起政治经济学学者对社区层面权力动态在国家和全球秩序之外的不平等持续和解决中的影响的关注。