Jose Luis Vivero Pol- Doctor in Agricultural Sciences. Food Systems in Transition and Commons.
- Associated Researcher at Catholic University of Louvain
Jose Luis Vivero Pol
- Doctor in Agricultural Sciences. Food Systems in Transition and Commons.
- Associated Researcher at Catholic University of Louvain
Co-leading a network of 65 European researchers to analyse the "Territories of Commons": how many hectares, people, food
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Introduction
Engaged-scholar & anti-hunger activist with experience on food and nutrition security policies, right to food & food sovereignty movements. Also experience in rural livelihoods, climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. Research on agri-food transitions, narratives and existing practices to consider "food as a commons & public good" and not simply a commodity. Field experience in several countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia. Lead editor of "Routledge Handbook on Food as a Commons" (2019). Researching on (a) non-market mechanisms to allocate food and natural resources and (b) customary and contemporary governing mechanisms to produce, distribute and consume food as a commons. #FoodCommons Scholar-Activist living between Spain and Asia.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
November 2018 - May 2019
November 2018 - May 2019
November 2017 - August 2018
Education
October 2004 - October 2004
Field of study
- Diploma in Food and Nutrition Security from a sustainable livelihood perspective
January 1999 - June 1999
January 1997 - March 1997
Field of study
- Diploma in Conservation and Management of Natural Areas and Sustainable Development
Publications
Publications (147)
Después de situar el concepto de bienes comunes, el artículo repasa alguno de los principales ejemplos que todavía funcionan en el Estado español y, en el contexto de la España vacía, los analiza en clave de oportunidad. Así, la tesis central del texto plantea que la España vacía representa una oportunidad precisamente por estar vacía y abandonada....
Due to complex interactions, changes in any one area of food systems are likely to impact—and possibly depend on—changes in other areas. Here we present the first annual monitoring update of the indicator framework proposed by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, with new qualitative analysis elucidating interactions across indicators. Since 2000...
A new food system indicator framework and monitoring architecture is presented to track food system transformation towards global development, health and sustainability goals. Five themes are considered: (1) diets, nutrition and health; (2) environment, natural resources and production; (3) livelihoods, poverty and equity; (4) governance; and (5) r...
Sustainable agrifood systems are critical to averting climate-driven social and ecological disasters, overcoming the growth paradigm and redefining the interactions of humanity and nature in the twenty-first century. This Perspective describes an agenda and examples for comprehensive agrifood system redesign according to principles of sufficiency,...
Purpose of Review
This review aims to identify the evidence for the assessment of the effectiveness and feasibility of multi-sectoral climate adaptation for food security and malnutrition. This review and the assessments of the evidence inform the contents and confidence statements in section “multi-sectoral adaptation for malnutrition” and in the...
The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific literature relevant to climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report recognizes the interactions of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societie...
Transforming food systems is essential to bring about a healthier, equitable, sustainable, and resilient future, including achieving global development and sustainability goals. To date, no comprehensive framework exists to track food systems transformation and their contributions to global goals. In 2021, the Food Systems Countdown to 2030 Initiat...
This paper interrogates the role of the dominant narrative of “food-as-commodity” in framing food systems policy in Canada. Human values shape policies, usually privileging those policies that are aligned with dominant values and neglecting others that confront dominant values. In that sense, valuing food as a commodity privileges specific market-b...
Food systems that support healthy diets in sustainable, resilient, just, and equitable ways can engender progress in eradicating poverty and malnutrition; protecting human rights; and restoring natural resources. Food system activities have contributed to great gains for humanity but have also led to significant challenges, including hunger, poor d...
When activists and academics think and implement the agroecological transition, attention shall be paid to re-thinking and re-defining the intellectual, distributive and historical premises behind the past, present and future food systems. Rather than being static and politically neutral, food systems are socio-ecological networks that are in conti...
This chapter interrogates the role of the dominant narrative of food-as-commodity in shaping how we approach food systems policy in Canada. Conventional food guidance in Canada encourages personal responsibility for health – like choosing fruit over candy bars -- while avoiding collective responsibility – like asking why candy bars are sold at scho...
Con motivo de la publicación del número 147 de la revista PAPELES de la Fundacion FUHEM, te invitamos a esta charla coloquio:
España VACIADA: claves para la transición
Miércoles 27 de noviembre 18.30 horas Librería LOS PEQUEÑOS SERES, Madrid (cerca de Atocha).
Analisis de la despoblacion en España desde una perspectiva de oportunidad, feminismo...
Latin America is leading the world in terms of awareness, protection and justiciability of the right to food. This paper analyses the recent developments of the legal frameworks incorporating the right to food, both in terms of Constitutional provisions and national and sub-national laws. The first wave in the promotion of the right to food (2005-2...
An account of resilient and surviving "territories of commons" in Europe, where food is produced by self-regulated collective actions, where biodiversity is stewarded and European traditions are preserved. The commons are still very relevant to the more sustainable and fairer food production in the decades to come. This book is about the political...
The industrial food system, which is becoming highly dominant, is increasingly failing to fulfil its basic functions: producing food in a sustainable manner, feeding people adequately and avoiding hunger. As hunger remains steadily high and obesity numbers do not cease to grow in a world that is overconsuming natural resources far beyond planetary...
Environmental activism, defined as a range of difficult pro-environmental behaviors, is analyzed within the conceptual framework of Significance Quest Theory (SQT). In Study 1, 40 interviews were carried out on two groups of people in the European Union: Committed Actors for Nature (CANs, n = 25) versus Committed Actors for Society (CASs, n = 15)....
This introductory chapter presents the idea of food as a commons, plus food systems and food-producing resources as a commons, as a different value-based political paradigm that can sustain alternative transition pathways out of our current unsustainable trajectory. Valuing food as a commodity is at odds with human history, in different civilizatio...
After explaining in detail the pervasive effects of treating food merely as a commodity, this concluding chapter unfolds the tricentric governing model that could steer a fairer and more sustainable transition towards food systems that can nourish the entire human population, thrive within planetary boundaries and be regenerative enough to guarante...
Nosso corpo demanda compulsoriamente comida, água e oxigênio para manutenção de suas funções vitais, mas a natureza econômica destes bens variam consideravelmente, com a comida sendo considerada um bem privado, a água sofrendo de um acelerado processo de privatização e o ar, até então, considerado um bem comum global. A comida evoluiu de um bem com...
This chapter will be centered around the multiple understandings of the concepts of food and commons, being those narratives context-specific social constructs. Actually, the valuation of food is multiple and varied across the world, mirroring the institutions and rules to govern its production, distribution and steward the food-producing resources...
This chapter explores how the multidimensional valuation of food as a commons resonates and it is materialized in multiple food initiatives that are currently taking place in Belgium, namely alternative food networks, food buying groups, community supported agriculture, bio-land funds, urban gardening and the like. Although many of those initiative...
The public justification for nature conservation currently rests on two pillars: hedonic
(instrumental) values, and moral values. Yet, these representations appear to do little
motivational work in practice; biodiversity continues to decline, and biodiversity
policies face a wide implementation gap. In seven EU countries, we studied why
people act...
Biodiversity loss is a widely debated world problem, with huge economic, social, and environmentally negative consequences. Despite the relevance of this issue, the psychological determinants of committed action towards nature and biodiversity have rarely been investigated. This study aims at identifying a comprehensive social-psychological profile...
Human society is developing a troublesome relationship with food. Nowadays, the food regime is such that many eat poorly and badly so that others can have access to all the food they desire and can pay for. Moreover, industrial production and global distribution of food are major driving forces in pushing the environment beyond the planetary ecolog...
The public justification for nature conservation currently rests on two pillars: hedonic (instrumental) values, and moral values. Yet, these representations appear to do little motivational work in practice; biodiversity continues to decline, and biodiversity policies face a wide implementation gap. In seven EU countries, we studied why people act...
Food, a life enabler and a cultural cornerstone, is a natural product with multiple meanings and different valuations for societies and individuals. Throughout history and geographies, food has shaped morals and norms, triggered enjoyment and social life, substantiated art and culture, justify commons-based systems and affected traditions and ident...
Food, a life enabler and a cultural cornerstone, is a natural product with multiple meanings and different valuations for societies and individuals. Throughout history and geographies, food has shaped morals and norms, triggered enjoyment and social life, substantiated art and culture, justify commons-based systems and affected traditions and ident...
Food, a life enabler and a cultural cornerstone, is a natural product with multiple meanings and different valuations for societies and individuals. Throughout history and geographies, food has shaped morals and norms, triggered enjoyment and social life, substantiated art and culture, justify commons-based systems and affected traditions and ident...
Collective food buying groups, such as community supported agriculture or self-organised citizen groups for delivery of food baskets, have emerged throughout the world as an important niche innovation for promoting more sustainable agri-food systems. These initiatives seek to bring about societal change. They do so, however, not through protest or...
In the wake of socialism’s demise and liberalism’s loss of direction, new ideas are needed for the next major realignment of the social and political domain. Making a unique contribution to the idea of ‘the commons’, this book offers a radical form of direct democracy with real-world implications. But whereas much of the current scholarship has loo...
Food systems primary goal should be to nourish human beings. And yet, the current industrial food system, with its profit-maximising ethos, is not achieving that goal despite producing food in excess. On the contrary, this system is the main driver of malnutrition on the planet, as well as environmental degradation. Nonetheless, food systems also p...
The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is broken. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway out of this crisis becomes an issue of utmost priority. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in this crisis, remains the uncontested narrative to...
Commons and food are experiencing a revival in recent years and yet the links between both are almost absent in academic and political discourses. Commons are often portrayed as historical and yet innovative governing mechanisms that can challenge the State-Market hegemony. On the other side, food is both a relevant agent of change and a major driv...
Food, a life enabler, a human right and a cultural cornerstone with multiple meanings, is increasingly treated and governed as a mere commodity by the neoliberal food policies that prevail in the Western World. This is specifically the case throughout the Member States and is epitomised in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The complexity of foo...
Despite ongoing efforts to motivate politicians and publics in Europe regarding nature conservation, biodiversity continues to decline. Monetary valuation of ecosystem services appears to be insufficient to motivate people, suggesting that non-monetary values have a crucial role to play. There is insufficient information about the motivations of ac...
The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is in a deep crisis. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway becomes an issue of utmost priority for our own survival. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in driving this crisis, remains the uncon...
Se presenta una extensa reseña del libro "Alimentos Desperdiciados" de Xavier Montagut y Jordi Gascon (Icaria Editorial, 2014) donde se explican los capitulos y las criticas al modelo industrial de produccion de alimentos. Utilizando la lente Gramsciana (la elaboracion del consentimiento sobre la narrativa dominante), el autor analiza la narrativa...
The “Territories of Commons” provide innovative and customary solutions by the European people to solve the multiple crises Europe is facing these days (values, democracy, biodiversity, food, water, energy, rural depopulation). These territories produce essentials for human survival (water, food, air), they are important pieces of the European cult...
Food is treated as a mere commodity in European policies, legal frameworks and normative views. Food is not considered as a human right in EU charters, constitutions and legal frameworks, nor a public good subject to public policies and universal access (such as health, education or water) and least to say a commons, although many commons and commu...
Although the recently approved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly mention access to water, health and education as universally guaranteed human rights, access to affordable and sufficient food is not given such recognition. The SDGs road map assumes that market mechanisms will suffice to secure nutritious and safe food for all. We ques...
Les statistiques sur la faim dans le monde, qui dépeignent un monde qui progresse de façon remarquable, servent à justifier les idéologies économiques prédominantes (productivisme, néolibéralisme et privatisation des ressources). Le présent texte propose une analyse approfondie de ces données (sous-alimentation, malnutrition chronique) et met en ga...
This paper analyses the main fault lines of the industrial food system and the consequences of the absolute commodification of food. Then, using the food regime theory and exploring the developments in the industrial food system (mainstream) and the urban alternative food networks (AFNs) and rural food sovereignty movement (innovative niches), the...
As we have never lived in a hunger-free world, we need to be aspirational when designing anti-hunger policies, especially those meant to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. We need to dare imgining and struggling for possible political utopias, as imagining them is the only way to reach them. Voting rights for women, salvery abolishment and equal ri...
This is the culmination of the Visions series, begun in WN in late 2014. Here immediately below are essences of the testimonies – commitments, beliefs, and aspirations – of our 19 Visions writers, taken from selections of their contributions that follow, and expressed in one sentence. We have a balance of younger and older visionaries, women and me...
Esta publicación aborda la situación de la SAN en Nicaragua, en el contexto de cambio climático. Una serie de trabajos de investigadores nacionales de diversas disciplinas y ámbitos profesionales han sido organizados para servir de base a la reflexión, discusión y formulación de propuestas para enfrentar el hambre y la desnutrición en el país. No s...
In this article, I present my vision and ideas on how we could transit towards a fairer and more sustainable food system where food would be valued as a multi-dimensional resource essential for human survival, and not just as a mere commodity. I explain my hopes, fears, the inspirational leaders to follow and the importance of crowd resistance and...
Vivero Pol JL. From nutrition to nourishment. WN Project Phoenix. [Feedback]. World Nutrition November-December 2015, 6, 11-12, 875-876
A partir de la relevancia del sector agropecuario para hacer efectiva la transición hacia la economía social del conocimiento común y abierto en Ecuador, el presente documento analiza los límites del capitalismo cognitivo que se está impo-niendo en este sector, restringiendo las posibilidades de uso de un conocimiento tradicionalmente compartido en...
Food is now treated as a commodity, and the global industrial food system is now broken. Food should be a public good, with producers supported by government and industry in the public interest. This paper explains why, how and what concrete implications can be stem from this narrative shift.
SITUACIÓN Y PROPUESTAS DE CONSERVACIÓN DE LAS ESPECIES SILVESTRES DEL GÉNERO PRUNUS EN ANDALUCÍA
Los alimentos están totalmente privatizados, el agua está en proceso de serlo y el aire lo será en un par de décadas. Hay que reconsiderar el alimento como un bien común. Hoy en día solo come el que tiene dinero para comprar alimentos o el que tiene los medios para producirlo.
http://www.cultura.gt/component/content/article?id=2278
Why has Guatemala, a middle-income country, such a huge child malnutrition rate (48% of stunting, the fifth highest in the world)? In order to understand the rapport de forces, motivations and strategic policies of influencing stakeholders, elite members and active institutions, a field research was undertaken with a questionnaire applied to 37 inf...
En este trabajo de economia política, sociología y sostenibilidad institucional, el autor presenta un análisis personal de los avances y desafíos de la Política de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional de Guatemala desde 2005, con una serie de recomendaciones para asegurar las sostenibilidad institucional y financiera de esta política pública más all...
Food, air and water are the three essentials our human body requires to functioning, but only food is
fully privatized. Food as a purely private good prevents millions to get access to such a basic
resource, since the purchasing power determines its access. With the dominant no money-no food
rationality, hunger still prevails in a world of abundanc...
Treating food as a purely private good is denying millions of people access to this basic resource. Food should therefore be seen as a commons or public good. It could then be produced and distributed more effectively by a governance system combining market rules, public regulations and collective actions.
http://thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/The-fo...
Food as a purely private good prevents millions to get such a basic resource, since the purchasing power determines access and the price of food does not reflect its multiple dimensions and the value to society. With the dominant no money-no food rationality, hunger still prevails in a world of abundance. Hunger is needlessly killing millions of ou...
El sistema alimentario industrial produce alimentos con insumos altamente dependientes del petróleo y gasta más energía en producir alimentos que la energía que proporcionan esos mismo alimentos. Además, el sistema desperdicia un tercio de los alimentos producidos. Es decir, el sistema alimentario industrial es altamente ineficiente a la hora de pr...
Rationality, benefits and key elements to build a binding international Treaty to govern food and nutrition security based on the narrative of food as a public good and under the guidance of the right to food, including food trade, national protection and humanitarian food issues.
Este documento presenta un analisis del hambre estacional en Guatemala, que se manifiesta por una variacion regular y marcadamente estacional de la desnutricion aguda infantil, alcanzando picos todos los anhos entre los meses de mayo y septiembre. Se analizan nueve factores que inciden sobre el hambre estacional, indicando las causas de su variacio...
Our body compulsory demands food, water and air to keep its vital functions and yet their economic nature is rather diverse with food mostly considered a private good, water suffering an accelerated privatization process and air so far considered a global common good. Food has evolved from a common good and local resource to a national asset and th...
This paper analyses the main fault lines of the industrial food system and the consequences of the absolute commodification of food. Then, several food dimensions important for human societies are analysed, and a different narrative shift is presented (food as a commons), a narrative that shall enlighten the sustainable food transition. This ongoin...
Este documento tiene como objetivo analizar el Pacto Hambre Cero de Guatemala a la luz de las experiencias latinoamericanas, para asi proponer opciones para mejorar el disenho y la ejecucion del Pacto. Se incluye un análisis institucional, legal y financiero de cuatro programas de lucha contra el hambre en Brasil, Colombia-Antioquia, Nicaragua y Pe...
En este capítulo se aborda la situación del hambre en el mundo, que se caracteriza por cifras
vergonzosas, con los hambrientos desigualmente repartidos a lo largo de un planeta que produce
suficientes alimentos para dar de comer a todos adecuadamente. Es más, producimos más alimentos de
los necesarios, y ni durante la crisis del precio de los alime...
The recent global food crisis highlighted the inability of the right to food to address and prevent such situations. It is time to render this right stronger and more effective, from voluntary guidelines to binding laws. FAO sponsored the creation of voluntary guidelines for the implementation of the right to food, the most detailed and comprehensi...
There are several ways of moving towards a hunger-free Latin America and Caribbean, and the legal approach to the right to food is one of the most powerful. The still-incipient justiciability will surely help achieve this. This paper collects relevant jurisprudence using the right to food as an argument and unfolds the opportunities for a more succ...
This paper argues that the starting point for a renewed and functional architecture of the global food system should be a definition of the goals to be achieved and of the main instruments of international law required to attain those goals. We propose concentration on a single goal: the eradication of hunger throughout the world no later than 2025...
Central America registers high food vulnerability and chronic undernutrition indexes. In order to have timely information at community level, ACF-Spain is developing a surveillance and early warning system through a methodology based on “Sentinel Sites” using Food and Nutrition Security indicators.
América Latina está a la vanguardia mundial en cuanto al conocimiento, protección y justiciabilidad del
derecho a la alimentación. Este trabajo analiza los avances en marcos legales que incorporan el derecho a la alimentación, tanto en la Constitución, como en leyes nacionales y sub-nacionales. La primera oleada de promoción del derecho a la alimen...
América Latina y el Caribe es la única región en desarrollo que puede acabar con el hambre en nuestra generación. Tiene 52,4 millones de personas subnutridas (10% de población) y 9 millones de niños con desnutrición crónica, pero también es la principal productora mundial de alimentos y tiene recursos financieros, naturales, humanos e institucional...
América Latina está a la vanguardia mundial en cuanto al conocimiento, protección y justiciabilidad del derecho a la alimentación. Este trabajo analiza los avances en marcos legales que incorporan el derecho a la alimentación, tanto en la Constitución, como en leyes nacionales y sub-nacionales. La primera oleada de promoción del derecho a la alimen...
Progresses and challenges of right to food demandability in several countries of Latin America.
1.- AMÉRICA LATINA Y SU CRISIS SOCIAL: MÁS POBRES Y HAMBRIENTOS PERO CON MÁS ALIMENTOS
2.- LOS DERECHOS ECONÓMICOS, SOCIALES Y CULTURALES EN LA REGIÓN: DOS PASOS ADELANTE, UN PASO ATRÁS.
2.1.- Breve retazo histórico: consolidación a pesar de todo
2.2.- Los DESC a finales del siglo XX: un avance más teórico que real para el ciudadano
3.- MARCOS LEGA...
Este trabajo analiza los argumentos a favor y en contra de las politicas publicas que favorecen la expansion de los agro-combustibles en America Latina, en base a un estudio detallado que el autor llevo a cabo ese mismo anho, publicado en la Fundacion Alternativas.
Este es un libro que aborda la alimentación desde su definición de derecho humano tan elemental como el de respirar. Hoy en día hay mil millones de hambrientos en el mundo, una cifra que no ha dejado de crecer desde 1990 y que se ha disparado con la crisis alimentaria y económica en que vivimos actualmente. Triste paradoja en un mundo que produce s...
Este texto presenta cinco areas de intervencion (Marco Legal, Justiciabilidad, Monitoreo, Sensibilizacion y Politicas Publicas) que contienen doce acciones concretas para promover el desarrollo nacional del derecho a la alimentación, primero para los hambrientos y luego para todos. Estas acciones abordan diferentes aspectos de los derechos humanos...
¿CUÁNTOS HAMBRIENTOS PUEDEN TOLERAR LAS DEMOCRACIAS LATINOAMERICANAS? No es el hambre un fallo de las democracias de la region, que no son capaces de garantizar ni un minimo acceso a un bien esencial, que se produce en exceso. Este texto analiza los avances legales, politicos e institucionales en los programas de lucha contra el hambre en la region...
Este capitulo analiza los avances, las barreras y las posibles vias de crecimiento de la judicializacion de las violaciones del derecho a la alimentacion, tanto las que conllevan sentencias administrativas como las que implican decisiones judiciales. Se analizan los casos de jurisprudencia en la region y en otras partes del mundo para ver donde est...
Analysis of the global 2008 food crisis and preliminary measures to be undertaken, plus specific recommendations for improving global governance of the food and nutrition system to be addressed to the Madrid High Level meeting on Global Food Security.
http://www.fundacionalternativas.org/observatorio-de-politica-exterior-opex/documentos/memorandos...
La Cátedra de estudios sobre Hambre y Pobreza (CEHAP) de Cordoba organizo el segundo Seminario Internacional sobre Derecho a la Alimentacion y Soberania Alimentaria (octubre 2007) y este libro es el resultado de las numerosas ponencias que se presentaron sobre ambos temas, ademas de incorporar analisis sobre seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.
América Latina y el Caribe es la única región en desarrollo que puede acabar con el hambre en nuestra generación. Tiene 52,4 millones de personas subnutridas (10% de población) y 9 millones de niños con desnutrición crónica, pero también es la principal productora mundial de alimentos y tiene recursos financieros, naturales, humanos e institucional...
Se analiza el impacto de la produccion de biocombustibles en la crisis alimentaria del 2008, desde una perspectiva espannhola, como miembro de la UE. Se proponen directrices de politica publica relevantes para el Gobierno Espanhol.
http://www.falternativas.org/la-fundacion/documentos/libros-e-informes/la-crisis-mundial-de-alimentos-alternativas-p...
Questions
Question (1)
At present, the hegemonic consideration of food in the dominant industrial food system is that food is just a commodity, and thus it is best governed by market mechanisms. As a commodity, the tradeable features prevail and obscure the non-economic considerations of food as (a) an essential resource for humans, (b) produced by nature, (c) considered largely as a human right, (d) undoubtedly being a cultural determinant at individual and societal level, and (e) being governed and subsidized throughout history and at present in most countries as a sort of public good with a public interest. The consideration of food as a commodity is a social construct that has been built by a combination of corporate interest and academic support from the neoclassical economists after WWII. This consideration privileges specific policy solutions and locks policy and legal alternatives that do not conform with the commoditized vision of food. In order to tackle the paramount difficulties the global food system will certainly face during the XXI century, the diversity of value-based narratives of food has to be accepted and legitimized, recognizing that food has multiple meanings (most of them non economic) and that can be governed as a commons or public good based on other moral grounds (not purely based on profit maximization and utilitarian mores).
I would appreciate your insights on these valuations of food (as a commodity, commons or public good) and/or examples where non-commoditized narratives of food prevail or substitute the commoditized vision. Thanks in advance.
