Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
transforming food from the quintessential necessity for human life to the status of
a tradable and quantifiable commodity. In the process we have lost our connection
to food - to those who produce it, to those who bring it to market and prepare it, to
those with whom we share it. Food too frequently becomes an excess, allowing us to
select on the basis of appearance and popularity rather than embedded environment-
al and social qualities, and encouraging levels of waste beyond the capacity of the
system. Business-as-usual - maintained by labour exploitation, environmental de-
gradation, large numbers of starving and large amounts of waste - leads to polluted
waterways, obesity epidemics, diabetes and heart disease outbreaks, topsoil erosion,
lost biodiversity and on and on. As eah of the contributors to this topic has demon-
strated, business-as-usual is irreparably broken. Yet, the idea that markets distribute
goods in the most efficient and appropriate manner is elegantly simple and, there-
fore, hard to dislodge.
We must recognize that food is culturally, socially and politically instrumental
to global societies. Invoking this recognition of a human right for sufficient and cul-
turally appropriate calories, and of consumption as an element of human expression,
can we imagine a global food system that balances issues of food as a human right,
food sovereignty and global trade markets? The left-hand side of
table 14.1
presents
a catalogue of possible ways forward. A food utopia, as we envision it, can help
us conceive of ways to get from where we are toward a more ideal food system in
terms of justice and flexibility. We have to think the unthinkable, but in a way that
provides a unified explanation with obtainable targets. As Ruth Levitas (2003) ar-
gues, by envisioning what the ideal might be - the utopian - we can better navigate
away from what is not working. In proposing utopia as the foundation for ahieving
a more just and flexible food system, we utilize it in an atypical manner drawing in-
spiration from Max Weber, Ernst Bloh, Paul Ricoeur and Ruth Levitas. Our encour-
aging the creation of a more appropriate food utopia is not a futile exercise in seek-
ing the impossible or proposing Pollyanna-ish solutions. Rather, we argue for utopia
as a fundamental practice that enables us to imagine what is possible and to focus a
critical perspective on the current food system. While the result is not an exact blue-
print, it identifies a moral destination and provides a map
toward
a shared future
in whih food is redeined as an essential ingredient for healthy people and healthy
communities at various scales. By re-establishing food as a fundamental right and a
building blok to democracy, we can begin to do the same with our political institu-
tions that have been hijaked in similar ways.
