Understanding post-exceptionalism in agri-food policymaking: Addressing multiple crises

Agricultural policies are often the target of criticism for doing too little to encourage and facilitate the farm and food sector to transforming to sustainable production, processing and consumption and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030. Recent years have seen new political demands to respond to multiple crises and risks facing the agri-food sector such as climate change (SDG 13), bio-diversity loss (SDG 15), water pollution (SDG 6) and antimicrobial resistance (SDG 3). Often the policy measures adopted to address these issues fall short of delivering the expected impacts. Agri-food policies have displayed a significant degree of continuity in their underlying paradigm. The exceptionalist legacy still sticks in the form of post-exceptionalism. The concept of post-exceptionalism denotes a partial transformation in which an exceptionalist policy sector has not been completely ‘normalized’ and in which old and new ideas, institutions, interests and policy instruments coexist. The theoretical challenge remains to identify and explain the dynamics of such partial transformation processes. A defining feature of policy measures aimed at addressing unsustainable food production, processing or consumption is cross-sectoral policy and governance arrangements. This involves inter-linkages at national and local levels with other policy domains such as environment and climate change, energy, water, public health, animal welfare, bio-technology, development, trade, security, international politics, and migration. Food systems also face transboundary threats, ranging from climate change, transboundary diseases and increased migration to disrupted supply chains due to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Agri-food technology change promises benefits for addressing such threats but simultaneously fuels new governance challenges and, ultimately, the rise of new and potentially contested modes of governance. There is a need for theoretical and empirical research on the dynamics of post-exceptionalist policymaking. This includes policy change, new cross-sectoral governance arrangements, potential for policy integration etc.