undermining food sovereignty: free trade and the green revolution

Recalling the global food crisis in 2007/08, this book sheds light on the complex linkage of three trends and their implications for the human right to food and other aspects of food sovereignty from a food regime perspective: the consolidation of the neoliberal international trade regime, persisting large inequalities in government support for domestic agricultural producers between so-called developed and developing countries, and increasing industrialization pressures on agricultural systems in the Global South. A wide range of social, political, economic, cultural and ecological effects is discussed empirically on the basis of the mechanisms between the EU CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), the AGRA network (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), and the EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements), free trade agreements between the EU and the ACP (Africa, Carribbean, Pacific) states, which are currently under negotiation. Overall, the dynamics lead to a loss of food sovereignty in the Global South. A paradigm shift towards agroecological small-scale farming is proposed, in combination with a relaxation of liberalization pressures on developing countries, and especially LDCs.