The trade-ification of the food sustainability agenda

Abstract

This contribution argues that the food sustainability agenda in global food governance arrangements is becoming ‘trade-ified’. It shows that international trade has become normalized in these settings not only as being compatible with, but also as a key delivery mechanism for, food system sustainability. The paper first explains the rationale for this dominant narrative, which revolves around the efficiency gains from trade. Second, it outlines two important critiques of this approach – one that stresses the need to look beyond food as an economic commodity, and one that reveals the internal flaws of trade theory – which together provide important counterpoints to this dominant narrative. Third, the paper offers three interrelated explanations for why trade continues to be presented as a key ingredient to food sustainability despite the weaknesses of the dominant approach: institutional fragmentation in global food governance; the carryover of previous normative compromises regarding trade and the environment in other governance settings; and the influence of powerful interests.

Keywords:

• international trade
• environmental sustainability
• global food governance
• norms
• institutional fragmentation
• interests

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Eric Helleiner, Adam Sneyd, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft, and Rachel McQuail for editorial assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This kind of argument shares some elements with the negotiating stance of some countries in the context of the WTO who defend their agricultural policies against claims that they distort trade on the grounds that agriculture is ‘multifunctional’ (Potter and Tilzey 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Clapp

Jennifer Clapp is a Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. She currently holds a Trudeau Fellowship. Her most recent books include Hunger in the balance: The new politics of international food aid (Cornell University Press, 2012), Food (Polity, 2nd ed., 2016), The global food crisis: Governance challenges and opportunities (co-edited with Marc Cohen, WLU Press, 2009), and Corporate power in global agrifood governance (co-edited with Doris Fuchs, MIT Press, 2009).