Civil society challenges the global food system: the international monsanto tribunal

Main Article Content

Nienke Busscher
Eva Colombo
Lidewij Van der Ploeg
Julia Inés Gabella
Amalia Leguizamón

Abstract

The global food system has severe implications for human and animal health, soil quality, biodiversity, and farmers’ quality of life. This paper provides an analysis on how transnational alliances challenge the global food system. We illustrate this by focusing on the activities and hearings of the International Monsanto Tribunal, which was held in the Hague in October 2016. The Monsanto Tribunal provided a platform for civil society organisations and enabled the creation and strengthening of transnational alliances to demand attention for local struggles and legal disputes in relation to Monsanto’s products in various countries. With the involvement of independent and renowned (legal) experts, the knowledge exchange between local victims and broader civil society was enhanced, and the Monsanto Tribunal reinforced social movement’s goals towards unveiling, and demanding justice for the negative effects caused by the global food system. The advisory opinion determined that Monsanto’s practices and products are in violation with international human rights standards and urged ‘ecocide’ to be recognized as a gross violation of human rights. The Monsanto Tribunal exemplified that there is an immediate need for structural change in the current global food system.

Article Details

How to Cite
Civil society challenges the global food system: the international monsanto tribunal. (2019). Administración Pública Y Sociedad (APyS), 8, 60-81. https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/APyS/article/view/26203
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Author Biographies

Nienke Busscher, Department of Cultural Geography, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Nienke Busscher is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She is
working on land grabbing and its socio-environmental implications. She did extensive research
in Argentina, studying the soy expansion, industrial tree plantations and conservation projects.

Eva Colombo, CEDLA Fellow

Eva Lia Colombo holds two MA in ‘Conflict Studies and Human Rights' (University of Utrecht) and ‘Latin American Studies' (CEDLA, University of Amsterdam). She conducted research on the topics of social movements, agroecology and socio-environmental conflicts related to GM soy in Córdoba, Argentina.

Lidewij Van der Ploeg, Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Lidewij van der Ploeg holds a PhD from the University of Groningen, Faculty of Regional
Studies on the topic of Business and Human Rights in the context of the mining industry. She is
currently a lecturer at the department of Environmental Sciences, Copernicus Institute for
Sustainable Development, Utrecht University.

Julia Inés Gabella, CONICET- Departamento de Geografía y Turismo, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina.

Julia Inés Gabella is a Post-doctoral researcher at the Argentinean National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET). She has a PhD in Geography from the National University of the South (UNS), Argentina. Her research topic is about socio-territorial dynamics and environmental transformations in rural drylands of Argentina. She is also studying land management, environmental degradation and rural resilience in semi-arid rural areas of the Pampean region.

Amalia Leguizamón, Sociology Department, Tulane University, USA.

Amalia Leguizamón is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and core faculty at
the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University (New Orleans, USA). Her
current research is on the changing socio-ecological dynamics resulting from large-scale
production of genetically modified soybeans in Argentina.

How to Cite

Civil society challenges the global food system: the international monsanto tribunal. (2019). Administración Pública Y Sociedad (APyS), 8, 60-81. https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/APyS/article/view/26203

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