Food Commodification, WTO Rules and the Human Right to Food: Unresolved Issues

In ancient times, the great empires used food as a payment or offering to the gods, but it was not until the emergence of capitalism, as a social-economic formation, that food began to acquire the characteristics of a commodity. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) establishes world trade rules and focuses on organising fair, predictable, free trade between states. Foodstuffs do not escape the regulations of this organisation as tradable goods. In this sense, WTO rules on food increase the process of commodification and generate various harmful effects. In this respect, this process is one of the underlying causes of food disorders; it affects biodiversity and the environment and undermines cultural traditions, local food markets and the State’s food sovereignty. This contribution aims to assess the impact of WTO rules on food commodification; concerning the human right to food and the unresolved issues at the international level. In addition, the research combines an exegetical study of WTO legal instruments such as the SPS, TBT and Agreement on Agriculture. The study combines several research methods used in legal and social studies as the legal-doctrinal method, document analysis, historical method and, in a certain way, some legal-empirical research.