Transition towards a food commons regime: re-commoning food to crowd-feed the world

Abstract

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.Utopia today, flesh and bone tomorrow.

Paradigm Shift: New Ideas for a Structural Approach to NCD Prevention Comment on "How Neoliberalism Is Shaping the Supply of Unhealthy Commodities and What This Means for NCD Prevention"

“…17 In the food system, for example, a growing movement of food cooperatives, urban agriculture and community-supported agriculture, operating under public interest and sustainability objectives, are demonstrating viable food economies supporting equitable access to healthy food, fairer livelihoods for producers and environmental sustainability. [18][19][20] By underpinning market exchanges with food's inherent value to our well-being, community life and environmental stewardship, alternative food economies are challenging neoliberalism's conception of goods and services as 'neutral, ' recognising value not captured in current supply, demand and price relations. 18,21 Progressive economist, Kate Raworth, has set out what she calls doughnut economics -the sweet spot for humanity with zero shortfalls in the social foundation (eg, food, income, education) while simultaneously not overshooting our ecological ceiling along any of the planetary boundaries (eg, biodiversity loss, fresh water, ozone depletion).…”

What Grows During a Crisis? Cultivating the Food Commons in Oxfordshire

“…Commoning the food system entails adopting a holistic and systemic approach to its transformation, involving all of its actors, sites, phases, and aspects (Pettenati et al, 2018). Transitioning towards a commons-based food regime also necessitates breaking the private and public sector duopoly over food production and distribution to create a tricentric governance system, under which the third pillar would be the self-organized food commoning initiatives that are (re)emerging across the world (Ostrom, 2010;Vivero-Pol, 2017b). This is exemplified by the case study of Oxfordshire, where a sudden socio-economic disturbance gave rise to an organized network of commoning initiatives with distributed agency and a shared objective.…”

“…The local level constitutes a key site where this transformation could take place, giving rise to novel forms of governance by enabling civil society, local authorities, and economic entities to co-determine food policy (Rossi et al, 2021). Scholars have pointed out that the relationship between commoning initiatives and public institutions has the potential for mutual benefit (Pettenati et al, 2018;Vivero-Pol, 2017b): food commoning initiatives could be supported, resourced, and enabled by a renewed, participatory, and democratic state. This is currently the case in Oxfordshire, where commoning initiatives retain their autonomy but maintain a symbiotic relationship with local governance bodies, attesting to the commons' fluidity.…”

In Common or Enclosed: A Comparison of Farmers’ Market Development in Poland and the United States

“…Both seek to develop food as a commons by intentionally navigating individual and collective needs, using food as a lever for social problem solving, and attempting inclusive governance practices in order to create a more sustainable food system. Their similar socialcultural factors also allow us to identify threats to their long-term viability, which may compromise the potentially transformative impact of AFNs (Vivero-Pol, 2015).…”