Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as a Commons
Frison, Christine; Coolsaet, Brendan
2018 • In Vivero Pol, Jose Luis; Ferrando, Tomaso; De Schutter, Olivieret al. (Eds.) Handbook of Food as a Commons: An alternative narrative and political praxis to cultivate and eat
[en] Agrobiodiversity is the continuum of wild to domesticated plant, animal and ecosystemic diversity sustaining people's livelihoods. This biodiversity results from an equally diverse set of culturally defined farming practices. To maintain both forms of diversity, access to genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA) is crucial. However, current regulation and policy increasingly commodifies GRFA, rendering their access and use difficult for smallholder farmers and peasant communities, hence jeopardizing food security and food sovereignty, and limiting the emergence of more sustainable farming practices. In this paper, we argue that governing GRFA as commons may offer remedy to this problem. As commons, GRFA are considered networked knowledge-goods with non-exclusive access and use conditions, which are governed, produced and consumed by communities. Two case studies are used to illustrate this: first, the Global Seed Commons established under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; second, the reintroduction and 'commonification' of a traditional pig breed by a local community enterprise in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. These cases show that, when moving beyond a narrow institutional understanding, innovative legal frameworks and governance arrangements inspired by the philosophy of the commons can facilitate access to and sharing of GRFA, hence helping to ensure the transition towards more sustainable agriculture.
Disciplines :
European & international law
Author, co-author :
Frison, Christine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Cité ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de droit > EcoLAWgy
Coolsaet, Brendan
Language :
English
Title :
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as a Commons
Publication date :
2018
Main work title :
Handbook of Food as a Commons: An alternative narrative and political praxis to cultivate and eat
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