Molly D. Anderson

Biography

Molly D. Anderson, Middlebury College

Molly D. Anderson teaches about food security, food justice, and food system transitions at Middlebury College and is developing a new food studies program. She is involved in food system planning at the state and regional scales, participating in Food Solutions New England network and the Inter-Institutional Network for Food, Agriculture & Sustainability; and she is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.  She has worked for Oxfam America and Tufts University, where she was the founding director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Graduate Program and directed Tufts Institute of the Environment.

Abstract

Who Decides Who Eats What?

This paper examines how governance affects food security and food system sustainability, specifically achieving the right to adequate food and nutrition (RtAFN).  The 2009 reform of the Committee on World Food Security established a unique governance structure, allowing much greater participation by civil society and setting up a “Civil Society Mechanism” and “Private Sector Mechanism” with equal formal space for participation in debates and setting the agenda. The role granted to the private sector has become increasingly contentious, since civil society actors argue that the private sector has exacerbated food insecurity and poor nutrition through its political and market actions. This paper describes how inclusive governance with checks and balances of corporate power has contributed to opening the space for negotiation of policies driving food insecurity, and contrasts the impacts of inclusive and exclusive governance mechanisms.