Changing Relations of Power in Global Food and Agriculture Governance

Food governance is undergoing rapid change. New governance arrangements are leading us away from a mono-disciplinary and siloed focus on agricultural, international development, environment and health towards more integrated and cross-boundary perspectives. These new assemblages present opportunities, but also challenge to the ruling governance approaches in so far as they prompt new rules of the game, changing the relations between international and global organizations, states, and local producers and receivers of food. New power arrangements are being established (and contested) between public and private actors, producers and consumers, policy makers and politicians in new combinations. Novel communication and information exchange channels are being explored, such as the use of big data to monitor and influence agricultural production and food consumption patterns. New grassroots-level organization are being set up for traditionally on the periphery of power to claim new rights and authority. The legitimacy and expectation of retail, NGOs and grassroots organizations are changing vice-versa government agencies. Furthermore, the sites where decisions are taken, and how these decisions are taken, about what is sustainable food production, healthy food patterns, and just and safe boundaries are also transforming. Given this, there is a need to evaluate existing and emerging governance arrangements and to identify innovative ways of governing agriculture and food production and consumption, including their integration (or exclusion) from other governance arenas. We welcome Panel and Paper proposal that explore and analyse new trends in agriculture and food governance. Proposed Panel titles: Big data- impacts and implications for food security actors Public Private Partnerships: trends in food and agriculture governance New approaches to multi-stakeholder governance for food and agriculture New models of governance for food and agriculture Governance from below: The power of local food actors in a globalizing world Food policy and governance in an post-2015 Development Agenda era