The Farm to Fork Strategy (2020) of the European Commission (EC) is at the heart of the Green Deal and aspires to transition towards a fair, healthy, and environmental-friendly food system. To this aim, the EC both emphasizes the importance of a collective approach involving stakeholders across the food value chain (EC,2020), and aims to launch a legislative framework for sustainable food systems by the end of 2023. Within this context, several areas relevant for building sustainable food systems have been identified: food production, food safety, food processing (including retail), food consumption, food labelling, food loss and waste, and combating food fraud.
This conference aims to bring practitioners, experts, and scholars together to unpack questions around the meaning of sustainability in the food and feed markets. Given the Commission endorsing an understanding of sustainability that covers ecological, social, and economic dimensions, we aim to explore the EC’s ambitions from various legal perspectives translated into three different themes: 1) food as a common good; 2) commercial contracts and consumer protection; and 3) technology.
During the Conference, we will address some of these questions: What is, can, or should be the role of law in sustainability transitions? What are key elements and values relevant for developing an adequate legislative framework for sustainable food systems? And, how does the Farm to Fork strategy cater to different dimensions of sustainability?
Program
Location: Theil C2-1
10.00-10.30 | Registration and Coffee |
10.30-10.45 | Welcome and Introduction Prof. Martin de Jong, Prof. Alessandra Arcuri, and Dr. Lonneke Poort |
10.45-11.45 | Invited lecture Reimaging Rights: Food Sovereignty Movements and the Agroecological Transition Dr. Matthew Canfield |
11.45-12.00 | Coffee/Tea break |
12.00-13.15 | Panel 1 The Just Food System Transition A Systems Perspective on Food, Farming & Fishery Law Dr. Hanna Schebesta The Infiltration of Transnational Corporations in the UN Food Regulation and their Impacts on International Law Drs. Zhonghua Du Agroecology and the Law: Staying with the trouble? Drs. Daniela Garcia-Caro Chair: Prof. Leonie Reins |
13.15-14.15 | Lunch |
14.15-15.15 | Invited Lecture Measurement is meaning? Normative and practical challenges for a legislative framework for sustainable food systems Dr. Ruth Mampuys Discussant: Dr. Michelle Habets; Chair: Dr. Lonneke Poort |
15.15-15.30 | Coffee Break |
15.30-17.00
| Panel 2 Legal reflections on a Sustainable Food System Combating Food Waste: EU Waste Initiatives and Belgian Experience Prof. Bert Keirsbilck and Drs. Elisa Paredis Food justice: Solidarity through food waste Dr. Daniela Vicherat Mattar, Dr. Jyothi Thrivikraman and Dr. Elena Burgos Martinez Agritourism: building a sustainable food system and local development, the Italian case for a common legislation reflection Ms. Sofia Mazzucato and Mr. Aref Sepehr The European struggle of regulating agricultural biotechnology: sustainability as the holy grail? Dr. Lonneke Poort and Dr. Florin Coman Kund Chair: Dr. Federica Violi |
17.00-17.30 | Wrap-up Day 1 |
Location: Theil C1-1
8.30 -8.45 | Coffee and Tea |
8.45-9.00 | Welcome and Introduction Dr. Johan Vannerom |
9.00-10.15 | ‘Views from the practice’ Dr. Dirk Carrez, Ariënne de Jong (Albert Hein (TBC)), and Ingrid D'Haeyer (KBC Bank) Chair: Dr. Johan Vannerom |
10.15-10.30 | Coffee Break |
10.30-12.30 | Panel 3 Food Supply Chain and Food- & Eco-Labelling Short Food Supply Chains in the EU Dr. Mirta Alessandrini Food-washing: reorienting the consumer food habits? Dr. Christophe Verdure Carriage of Livestock – The Carrier’s duty of care Prof. Frank Smeele Food Labelling in the EU Dr. Johan Vannerom and Ms. Lien Carrez The right to food in South Africa – A consumer protection perspective Dr. Tracy Muwanga Chair: Dr. Ioannis Kampourakis |
12.30-13.30 | Lunch |
13.30-14.30 | Interview with Prof. Michael Fakhri UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food With Matthew Canfield, Alessandra Arcuri, and Jolanda Andela Chair: Prof. Sanne Taekema |
14.30-15.45 | Panel 4 The (De-)Commodification of Food Urban food commons: Opportunities, challenges, and implications in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Dr. Ciska Ulug, Dr. Jannes Willems, and Drs. Ying-Tzu Lin Decommodifying food: experiences of food commoning in Europe Drs. Jean-Marc Louvin Food De-Commodification As Sustainability? The Case of ‘Counter-Regulation’ in Italian Alternative Food Networks Prof. Alessandra Arcuri Chair/Discussant: Dr. Enrique Santamaria Echeverria |
15.45-16.00 | Coffee/Tea Break |
16.00-17.15 | Round Table Food Sustainability: Legal Barriers and Opportunities Prof. Michael Fakhri, Dr. Anne Saab, Dr. Maria Weimer, and Dr. Tomaso Ferrando |
17.15-17.45 | Joint Publication Project discussion and Closing |
Themes
EU and international legal regimes tend to frame food as a commodity and ‘tradable good.’ On May 2020, the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors part of the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) in the EU released a Report on ‘a sustainable food system’ (SAM 2020), where it is argued that in order to achieve sustainable food systems, we must move away ‘from food as a commodity to food as more of a common good.’ However, the transition from treating food as a commodity to treating it as a common good is highly challenging. Taking this as a starting point, we ask:
How can existing and future EU food law and policy enable or constrain such transitions? Are there existing rules that can be leveraged to fast forward this transition?
What are the major barriers posed by existing legal institutions? How are agricultural key policies, such as the CAP, facilitating/hindering such transition? How are new trade agreements dealing with the question of food sustainability and food as common good rather than a tradable commodity?
What is the relation between regulators and peasants in reimagining food as a common good? What rural practices can serve as inspiration for, and reveal potential drivers to, a different legal framing of food in the EU?
Ensuring that food can travel from farm to fork requires the involvement of various private actors. These actors hold important roles that span the supply chain and include producers, food auditors, supermarket and/or distribution chains, retail-sellers, and consumers. Although linked to the same product or service, bi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g. sale of goods, distribution, and agency agreements) govern their professional relationships; it is not uncommon that one contracting party has a stronger position in such relationships. As a result, EU Directive 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain tries to strengthen the weaker party's position (i.e. the farmer's position). Moreover, some member states have introduced further rules on unfair B2B-contract terms. Public actors – most often governments – demand that private actors, like banks, contribute to achieving policy aims on sustainability and climate actions. Based on these observations, the following questions arise:
What are the implications of delegating such tasks to private actors, who have their own regulatory and commercial principles to abide with? Will eco-certification schemes become part of the conditions to grant credit to farmers? Do banks have to assess the durable outcomes and/or characteristics of a financial project?
This group also focuses on consumers and consumer behavior:
Who is the benchmark-consumer? Is it the rational, circumspect, and well-informed consumer or are food-consumers to be treated differently? Food is one of our most basic needs as humans; is the consumer sufficiently protected by the law, though? Are existing rules sufficient to make data transparent and understandable to the consumer? Can food and nutrition labels and/or claims mislead consumers? Which information duties arise?
This cluster welcomes all contributions that discuss, analyze, or elaborate on the topics developed above.
As detailed in the Farm to Fork Strategy, the EC promotes organic farming as a primary strategy to establishing sustainable food systems. However, the Commission also refers to the potential of (bio-)technology in ensuring access to food as well as promoting sustainable food production. While not mutually exclusive, these separate goals lead us to ask: how can biotechnology contribute to ensuring sustainability? Can genetic modification techniques contribute to or play a role in strategies mitigating climate change impacts/effects? Or is it possible to use these techniques to decelerate further climate change?
This cluster welcomes all contributions that discuss, analyze, and elaborate on the role of technology in promoting sustainability in the food and feed markets from a legal perspective. How can we develop a legal framework for emerging (bio-)technologies that simultaneously promotes sustainability? Who are the stakeholders to be included? What are the guiding legal principles in addressing these technologies? Etc.?
Legal-philosophical or legal-theoretical contributions that reflect upon the different legal meanings of sustainability are also welcome, considering the aforementioned technological developments and sustainability as overarching concepts. Furthermore we invite academics to elaborate on the feasibility of an overarching concept of sustainability in the food and feed markets. Is it valuable and/or feasible to develop policy and regulation based on a broad understanding of sustainability?
Invited speakers
| Prof. Michael Fakhri | UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, |
Dr. Ruth Mampuys | Senior scientific researcher at WRR, Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy |
Dr. Dirk Carrez | Executive Director Biobased Industries Consortium |
Dr. Matthew Canfield | Assistant Professor of Law and Society & Law and Development at the Van Vollenhoven Institute at Leiden Law School |
| Prof. Fiona Smith | Professor in International Economic Law, University of Leeds |
| Dr. Anne Saab | Associate Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies |
| Dr. Tomaso Ferrando | Assistant professor of International Economic Law, University of Antwerp |
Organizers and contacts
The conference is a joint project of Erasmus School of Law and the Erasmus Initiative Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity. Organizing Committee: Prof. Alessandra Arcuri, Dr. Lonneke Poort, Dr. Johan Vannerom, and Drs. Daniela Garcia-Caro. For questions about the submission procedure, write to garciacaro@law.eur.nl.