HOW DO PEOPLE

VALUE FOOD?
Systematic, heuristic and
normative approaches to
narratives of transition in
food regimes

JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL

ELI Agronomy
CPDR (BIOGOV) - Law
What is Food?

Essential for survival

(De Schutter & Pistor 2015)

Societal determinant (Ellul 1990)

Agent of power (Sumner 2011)
Commodity (Siegel et al. 2016)
Private Good (Samuelson 1954)
Public Good (Akram-Lodhi 2013)
Commons (Dalla Costa 2007)
Human Right (UN 1999)
Multiple meanings (Szymanski 2014)
The dominant narrative in
industrial food system

FOOD IS A COMMODITY
Thus, the market is the best
allocation mechanism
XX century Proprietary developments
Natural rights were translated into absolute
proprietary rights to destroy everybodys
natural resources
Absolute primacy of proprietary rights over
other rights (life, water, food, house)
Without right of absolute alienation, free-
markets would not work well (in theory)
Coase (1969), Alchian & Demsetz (1972)
Food has multiple meanings

a.- Situated (time, place, knowledge)

b.- Phenomenological (meanings
depend on the observer and
circumstances)
Who is fishing
my Tuna?
Food system is the greatest driver
of Earth transformation

Food systems accounts for 48% of land use

70% of water use
33% of total GHG emissions
Phosphorus & Nitrogen exceeded Planetary
Boundaries
Deforestation, biodiversity loss, driver of
Non-communicable diseases
(Steffen et al., 2015; Ivanova et al., 2015; Clapp, 2012)

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 The actual way of
producing & eating
(western diets &
industrial food system)
is unsustainable
IAASTD (2008)
It cannot be maintained
for the next 50 years

UNEP (2009)

UK Foresight (2011)
IPES FOOD (2016)
UNCTAD (2013)
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HYPOTHESIS

The way we value food

(narrative) conditions the
set of policies, governing
mechanisms and legal
frameworks that can be
proposed in the
transition pathways
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FOOD AS A COMMONS

Explanatory
Power?

FOOD AS A COMMODITY

12
1.- How have we reached the 1.- Genealogy of Narratives
current situation? Commodity (schools of thought + academic
dominates over commons literature)

2.- How do narratives 2.- The value-based narratives

influence (a) policy options, of Food of agents in transition
(b) legal frameworks (2 case-Studies with
preferred by people/states? individuals + 1 with States)

3.- Theoretical
underpinnings of food as a 3.- Normative approach
commons
4 Peer-reviewed Articles & 1 Chapter
Research Hypothesis: Valuing food (commodity or commons) conditions the set of policies, governing mechanisms and legal frameworks that can be proposed and implemented,
privileging one transition pathway over the others.

Understanding the Specific RQ 1: How have the different schools of thought defined the commons and where has food been placed in this typology?
narratives of commons
WH 1: The prevalent meaning of commons is shaped by the economic epistemology and vocabulary, obscuring other understandings. It justifies market
mechanisms as the most appropriate allocation method.

Understanding the Specific RQ 2: What is the role of academia in the construction of the dominant narrative of food as a commodity?
narratives of food in
WH 2: Academia has been instrumental in the construction of the narrative of food as a commodity. The economic understandings of the commons
Academia
and food are ontological (defining the nature of goods), thus preventing other phenomenological understandings.

Food narratives of Specific RQ 3: How does the value-based narrative of food influence individual agency in transitional food pathways?
individual agents in
regime and niches WH 3: Valuing food as a commodity is the dominant narrative of individual actors working in the regime (who adopt gradual reforming stances),
whereas the consideration of food as a commons is dominant in those agents working in transformational niches. The valuation of food is correlated to
specific food policy options in regime and niches.

Food narratives of Specific RQ 4: How is relational agency influenced by dominant narratives, governance mechanisms, social learning and networking in niches?
relational agents in
WH 4: The narratives of food in transformative niches are not homogeneous, what triggers different governing arrangements and preferred policy
innovative niches
options. The construction of a common narrative in those connected niches depends on specific governance features, social learning and mutual
legitimacy.

Food narratives of Specific RQ 5: How does the dominant narrative of food condition preferred food policy options in international negotiations?
governments in
international negotiations WH 5: The narrative of food as a commodity is dominant at governmental level thus proposing market-based mechanisms to govern food production
and distribution.

Policy implications of Specific RQ 6: How does the food commons narrative help in designing a different transition pathway in the food system?
food as a commons
WH 6: The historical process to commodify food has been long and multi-faceted. Likewise, the process needed to re-commonify food will take
decades and require to be polycentric and informed by a food narrative that equally values economic and non-economic dimensions of food.
METHODOLOGY
Transition
Theory
(Geels & Schot,
2007)
 People construct narratives to
Discourse persuade other people
Powerful agents shape narratives
Analysis that become hegemonic
(Gramsci 1971, Foucault 1993, Wallerstein 2016)

A NARRATIVE is a set of coherent assumptions and

principles to communicate a certain worldview
(Freibauer et al 2011)
FRAMES: cognitive devices a) Defining Problems, b)
Causal relationships, c) Proposed solutions
NARRATIVES: Framing + moral valuation (normative)
(Ferree & Merrill 2000)
 State agents
(US - EU positions regarding
right to Food)

Narratives of
agents in Transition

Individual Agents Relational Agents

(Food professionals) (members of Food Buying
Groups)
Vocabulary
 Commodification
occurs when the exchangeability of any
good, in monetary terms, becomes its
most relevant dimension (Appadurai, 1986)

Multiple food dimensions superseded by its

tradeable dimension

Photo: Dean Hochman, Flickr 21

COMMONS
Goods which are jointly developed by a community and shared
according to community-defined rules (Kostakis & Bauwens 2014)

22
COMMONS = RESOURCE + COMMUNITY
+ COMMONING + PURPOSE

(Social Construct)

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 Industrial
Food System
Technologically-driven productivism
Market-led mechanisms
Agro-industry: farming considered as a
bussines (Cambridge English Dictionary).
Farm as a factory
Agri-Food corporations as major actors
Economies of scale to maximise profits,
ultra-processed foods, mechanized
systems, low wages, low-cost Food system
The system of chemically intensive food production, featuring enormous
mono-cropping farms, animal production facilities and long supply chains
(UCSUS in Horrigan et al. 2012)
SYSTEMATIC
APPROACH
(Chapter 2-3)
 Chapter 2: Schools of Thought on Commons

LEGAL (private, public, collective property)

ECONOMIC (common goods, rival & non-excludable)

POLITICAL (recognising diversity of social

arrangements)

ACTIVIST (struggle for old commons, inventing new

commons): commons as counter-hegemonic to
capitalism-neoliberalism
 RIVALRY
Adapted from Hess & Ostrom (2007)
The property of a good whereby
with examples from this thesis
one persons use diminishes other peoples use
Low High
Economists PUBLIC GOODS COMMON POOL RESOURCES
Free-to-air television, air, street lighting, national Timber, coal and oil fields etc.
School defense, scenic views and universal health care
etc.
of Thought
1. Emergency management for zoonotic diseases 1. Ocean fish stocks,
Difficult 2. Cooking recipes 2. Edible wild fruits and animals
3. Gastronomy knowledge
EXCLUDABILITY 4. Safe food supply system
5. Traditional agricultural knowledge
The property of 6. Genetic resources for food and agriculture
a good whereby 7. Regulation of extreme food price fluctuations
a person can be
prevented from
CLUB GOODS PRIVATE GOODS
using it
Cinemas, private parks and satellite television etc. Clothing, cars and personal electronics
etc.
1. Patented agricultural knowledge
2. Hunting in game reserves 1. Cultivated food
Easy
3. Fishing and hunting licenses 2. Privately owned agricultural land
3. Genetically modified organisms
reductionist + theoretical + ontological 4. Patented improved seeds
(inner property)
 Multiple meanings: Genealogy & hegemony of narratives

What do commons mean today?

the concept across history leads us up to modern concepts (Foucault, 1993)
What is the dominant meaning of commons?
Economic approach to the commons is culturally hegemonic

A diverse society (multiple proprietary regimes, political

arrangements) is influenced by the univocal economists approach
to commons (ruling class) so that their reductionist approach is
imposed and accepted as the dominant narrative that justifies the
social, political, and economic status quo as natural, perpetual and
beneficial for everyone, rather than as an artificial social
constructs that benefit only the ruling class
(Adapted from Gramsci)

Tragedy of the Commons, Absolute Proprietary Regimes, Private property as natural law & foundation of
capitalism, individualism, rational choice, profit maximisation, Homo economicus
Chapter 3
Methodology
Google Scholar: 160 M docs (90% of English published articles)
Period 1900-2016 (1960, 2008)
PRISMA guidelines for systematic review
 The idea of food in academia: long-term trends
30000 140

25000
179 hits food + commons + public good 120

49,100 hits food + commodity + private good 100

20000

80

15000

60

10000
40

5000
20

0 0
1900-1959 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000-2007 2008-2016

Food + Commodity Food + Private Good Food + Commons Food + Public Good
How does the normative valuation shape
political stance & food policy beliefs?

Heuristic
Approach
(Chapter 4-5)
Chapter 4
The six food dimensions relevant to humans:
multi-dimensional food as commons VS mono-dimensional food as commodity

Source: Vivero-Pol (2017).

 725 questionnaires via Twitter to Food-related
professionals active in social networks

95 respondents (21 countries, 85 institutions)

Public sector (33.7%), Not-for profit sector (48.4%)

Weakness: low representation of for-profit Sector

(only 17.9%). No replies from agri-food companies
Gradual reformers* are
positively correlated to
the mono-dimensional
valuation of food as a
COMMODITY
Transformers* are positively
correlated to the multi-
dimensional valuation of
food as a COMMONS

NO CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP
Valuation of food is significantly correlated with
the POLITICAL STANCE vis a vis the food system

However, the valuation of food is NOT

correlated to self-regarded position in
REGIME OR NICHES
 Loci of resistance in regime &
niches with shared food narratives
 Chapter 5

104 members of Food Buying Groups in Belgium

(transformative agents in niches)
Social Enterprise stream Social Network stream

Priority to provide healthy and Priority to transforming the

tasty food to members farming system

Volunteering to work but less More convivial events and less

volunterism
to convivial events
They build a new food system
They struggle against the food
system
Conviviality builds common
narratives & shared values
Less networking with other
Food initiatives Networking & learning from
other Food initiatives
Requesting technical-
administrative Support Requesting political legitimacy
Individual narratives molded
by governing arrangements,
networking & social learning
Governance
Approach
(Chapter 6-7)
Chapter 6
 FOOD AS A COMMODITY pervades international negotiations
Contrarily to previous consensus, Food is not valued as a human right
in SDGs route map
Adamant US position against Food as a human right
Timid/dual EU position: supporting RtF for others, doing nothing at
home (No EU country includes RtF)
US/EU posit that markets are far more efficient than rights-based
schemes for food
Chapter 7

POLICY & LEGAL

OPTIONS with
narrative of Food
as Commons

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 Tri-centric Partner State More Incentives &
Governance Redistribution Citizens welfare subsidies to
of Food Food as public good collective actions
Farmers as civil
Commons servants
Systems Banning food
Public speculation
Minimum free food
Private for all citizens
Local purchase
Rights-based Food
banks

Social Market
Collective actions Enterprises
Communities
Supply-demand
Reciprocity
Food as private good
Food as common good
Normative Theory of
Food as a Commons

48
The six food dimensions relevant to humans:
multi-dimensional food as commons VS mono-dimensional food as commodity

Source: Vivero-Pol (2017).

Narrative of convergence for
customary food systems and
contemporary ones

50
 Food shall be valued/
governed as a commons
because is vital to individuals
& cornerstone of societies. It
cannot be left only to markets

Shift in the excludability feature:

from can be excluded to ought not to be excluded
(ONeill, 2001)

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 LIMITS OF THIS RESEARCH

1.- Reductionist dualistic typology (valid as first approach

though, Vanderplanken et al., 2016)
2.- Mostly third and public sector respondents (eaters), none
from Big Food Corporations
3.- Understand better valuation of cultivated food in peasant
& entrepreneurial food systems (feeding 70% world population)
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 Navigating
unchartered waters
Lack of theoretical framework in
one narrative with a highly
developed framework in the other

No other case study comparing

both narratives, ad hoc research
methodology (pairwise comparison
of proxy constructs in Ch 4)

Inter-disciplinary approach,
multi-methodological tools

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 Further research
More case-studies testing explanatory power of food
commons narrative
Agri-Food corporations, peasants & entrepreneurial food
producers, non-Western eaters, Epistemologies of the South
Exploring Public-Commons Partnerships in urban food
Non-monetised arrangements for cultivated food
Who decides what a commons is? State, municipality,
organised people (Charcoal in Ecuador VS Turin Food Policy)

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COMMONING CREATES
THE COMMONS

Dardot & Laval, 2014

Food as a commons
means revalorising
different dimensions
relevant to human beings
(value-in use) & reducing
the commodity dimension
(value-in exchange)

56
Conclusions Food as a commons
has explanatory &
policy power
(worth to be further explored)

57
 Re-considering FOOD as a COMMONS
may be unattainable but

John Maynard Keynes

British economist (1883-1946)
The difficulty lies not so much in
developing new ideas as in escaping from
old ones

Marcel Proust
French writer (1871-1922)
The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeking new lands, but in seeing
with new eyes

58
Wether Hills, Circa 3000 yrs exploited
Northumberland (UK) as a commons

Davis & Dixon (2012)

59
60
Montes Veciais
en man comn
(Spain)
La Partecipanza Agraria de Nonantola

Collective Ownership of Agricultural Land in

Emilia Romagna
Almost 1000 years: Carta del 1058 dellAbate
Gotescalco, granting inhabitants of Nonantola the
users rights over arable land within the
municipal territory (now, 760 hectare)
Guiding values: Solidarity, Respect, Identity,
Equality.
Boccas are raffled every 18 years within
descendents still inhabiting Nonantola.
63
Hazas de
la Suerte
Vejer de la Frontera
(Spain)
Two entitlements:
cultivate & benefit
Established 1288 by
King Sancho IV
3500 hectare, 232
allotments, 13,000
inhabitants (raffles
yrs per generations)
Allemansrtten
(The Everymans right)
you can walk, run, hike, camp,
swim, pick berries or
mushrooms anywhere in
privately owned and public land
Water Tribunal of
Valencia Huertas
(one of oldest juridical institutions)
Croft lands
(Scotland)

http://www.c
rofting.org/a
boutus
 Baldios
(Portugal)
Cloughjordan
Ecovillage
(Ireland)
Universita Agraria
Medieval institution to govern
collective lands (Sacrofano, Italy)

70
 9% France

25% of Galicia is
onwed in communal
property

Not just private-state

duopoly Territories of
Commons
5% of Europe (12 M Ha of
utilised agricultural area)
More in coastal and
forested areas
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All references mentioned can be found here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320864109_How_do_people_value
_food_Systematic_heuristic_and_normative_approaches_to_narratives_of_tran
sition_in_food_systems

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