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Right to food

Right to food is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Right to food rather than just read about it. In short: The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual's dietary needs. The right to food protects the right of all human beings to be free from hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

Right to food — main illustration
Right to food — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Right to food belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Right to food to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Right to food from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual's dietary needs. The right to food protects the right of all human beings to be free from hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. The right is derived from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which has 170 state parties as of April 2020. States that sign the covenant agree to take steps to the maximum of their available resources to achieve progressively the full realization of the right to adequate food, both nationally and internationally. In a total of 106 countries the right to food is applicable either via constitutional arrangements of various forms or via direct applicability in law of various international treaties in which the right to food is protected. At the 1996 World Food Summit, governments reaffirmed the right to food and committed themselves to halve the number of hungry and malnourished from 840 to 420 million by 2015. However, the number has increased over the past years, reaching an infamous record in 2009 of more than 1 billion undernourished people worldwide. Furthermore, the number who suffer from hidden hunger – micronutrient deficiences that may cause stunted bodily and intellectual growth in children – amounts to over 2 billion people worldwide. Whilst under international law, states are obliged to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food, the practical difficulties in achieving this human right are demonstrated by prevalent food insecurity across the world, and ongoing litigation in countries such as India. In the continents with the biggest food-related problems – Africa, Asia and South America – not only is there shortage of food and lack of infrastructure but also maldistribution and inadequate access to food. The Human Rights Measurement Initiative measures the right to food for countries around the world, based on their level of income.

Definition

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the "right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food", as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger". The relationship between the two concepts is not straightforward. For example, "freedom from hunger" (which General Comment 12 designates as more pressing and immediate) could be measured by the number of people suffering from malnutrition and at the extreme, dying of starvation. The "right to adequate food" is a much higher standard, including not only absence of malnutrition, but to the full range of qualities associated with food, including safety, variety and dignity, in short all those elements needed to enable an active and healthy life. Inspired by the above definition, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in 2002 defined it as follows:

The right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensure a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.

This definition entails all normative elements explained in detail in the General Comment 12 of the ICESCR, which states:

the right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.

Dimensions The former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, defined three dimensions to the right to food.

Availability refers to the possibilities either for feeding oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources, or for well functioning distribution, processing and market systems that can move food from the site of production to where it is needed in accordance with demand. Accessibility implies that economic and physical access to food is to be guaranteed. On the one hand, economic access means that food should be affordable for an adequate diet without compromising other basic needs. On the other hand, physically vulnerable, such as sick, children, disabled or elderly should also have access to food. Adequacy implies that the food must satisfy the dietary needs of every individual, taking into account age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex, culture and religion, for example. The food must be safe and adequate protective measures by both public and private means must be taken to prevent contamination of foodstuffs through adulteration and/or through bad environmental hygiene or inappropriate handling at different stages throughout the food chain; care must also be taken to identify and avoid or destroy naturally occurring toxins. Furthermore, any discrimination in access to food, as well as to means and entitlements for its procurement, on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, age, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status constitutes a violation of the right to food.

Agreed-upon food standards Regarding the right to food, the international community also specified commonly agreed on standards, such as in the 1974 World Food Conference, the 1974 International Undertaking on World Food Security, the 1977 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, the ECOSOC Resolution 1987/90, the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the 1996 Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements.

History

Negative or positive right

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Right to food: Right to food around the world, as of 2011–2012:[1][2][3] .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  Adopted or drafting a framework law (19)   Constitutional, explicit as a right (23)   Constitutional, implicit in broader rights or as directive principle (41)   Direct applicability via international treaties (103)   Committed by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (160)   No known right to food Note: The same country can fall in multiple categories; the colour given to a country corresponds to the highest listed category in which a country falls.
Right to food around the world, as of 2011–2012:[1][2][3] .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  Adopted or drafting a framework law (19)   Constitutional, explicit as a right (23)   Constitutional, implicit in broader rights or as directive principle (41)   Direct applicability via international treaties (103)   Committed by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (160)   No known right to food Note: The same country can fall in multiple categories; the colour given to a country corresponds to the highest listed category in which a country falls.
Right to food illustration
Right to food: Malnourished children in Belgium delivered with food aid
Malnourished children in Belgium delivered with food aid
Right to food: Countries that are developing or have adopted framework laws on the right to food (19):[1]   Adopted a framework law (10)   Drafting a framework law (9)
Countries that are developing or have adopted framework laws on the right to food (19):[1]   Adopted a framework law (10)   Drafting a framework law (9)
Right to food: Countries with the explicit constitutional right to food (23):[1]   As a separate and stand-alone right (9)   Of a specific segment of the population (10)   As part of a human right to an adequate standard of living, quality of life, development, or right to work (7) Note: Brazil has all three and South Africa has the former two; they are included in each category, but counted once for the total.
Countries with the explicit constitutional right to food (23):[1]   As a separate and stand-alone right (9)   Of a specific segment of the population (10)   As part of a human right to an adequate standard of living, quality of life, development, or right to work (7) Note: Brazil has all three and South Africa has the former two; they are included in each category, but counted once for the total.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Right to food

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Right to food claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Right to food before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Right to food ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Right to food

In research
Right to food appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Right to food in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Right to food is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Food politics, Food sovereignty, Human rights by issue, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Right to food outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Right to food in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Right to food means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Right to food out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Right to food in simple terms?

The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual's dietary needs. The right to food protects the righ…

Why does Right to food matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Right to food?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Right to food.

Tags

  • Food politics
  • Food sovereignty
  • Human rights by issue

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