The Food Commons: An Unexplored Approach for a More Sustainable Design for Our Food Systems

This chapter provides an illustration of the novel food commons theory and approach. To introduce the topic, this chapter will first sketch the commons theory by identifying five main defining parameters: (1) the resource, (2) the subjects, (3) the governance, (4) the legal regime, and (5) the economic regime. After this, the food commons approach will be thoroughly defined. This part is divided into two main parts. First of all, the pars destruens of this doctrine will be taken into account, namely, its harsh critique of the contemporary postindustrial food system. Then the second part is devoted to describing the proactive proposals advanced by the food commons approach, which can be categorized under three main pillars: (1) a multidimensional and intrinsically political conception of food that rejects a monodimensional commodification of food and that nurtures instead various noncommodifiable dimensions (food as an essential life enabler, as a cultural and religious determinant, as a public good, as a human right, as a renewable natural resource, as a commodity, as a medicine, as a commons); (2) tricentric governance of food systems, where the food commons would balance and complement the other two traditional centers of power, represented by the public and the private sectors; and, eventually, (3) the reevaluation of food system actors, from mere passive consumers to food citizens constituting food democracy, i.e., as politically responsible individuals who collectively shape their food system according to more democratic, participative, and ecological mechanisms.