Let them eat cake: what has the right to food got to do with the role of farmers?
As a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights the UK is committed to progressive realisation of the right to food. But in practice the UK government takes no responsibility for ensuring universal access to good food, and has been asked by the UN to explain why it is relying on ad hoc provision of food banks to tackle insecurity. In Scotland, there are calls to include the right to food in domestic law.
We all know that raising wages, improving social security and targeting support to women are key to ensuring the right to food in practice: but does farming have a role in feeding people too, or is it just there to produce raw materials for the global supply chain?
Pete Ritchie (Nourish Scotland)
Naomi Salmon (Aberystwyth University)