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Ethical Aspects of Food Systems

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/52469

Many of the cases in other sections discuss the ethical aspects of food systems. The case prepared for this section discusses policy options for implementing the human right to freedom from hunger in the context of experience from India. Cases on other aspects of ethics and the food systems will be developed in the future.

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    Food Policy and Social Movements: Reflections on the Right to Food Campaign in India
    Srinivasan, Vivek; Narayanan, Sudha (CUL Initiatives in Publishing (CIP), 2007)
    The Right to Food Campaign in India began in 2001. It was a time of absurd paradox. Even as the foodgrain stocks held by the government rose to 50 million metric tons, several parts of the country were reeling from a third consecutive year of drought. The threat of severe hunger loomed large, yet efforts to address this threat were insufficient. In April 2001 the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan, an active civil society group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, submitted a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India. Briefly, the petition demanded that the country’s food stocks be used without delay to protect people from hunger and starvation. This petition led to a prolonged “public interest litigation”1 (PUCL vs. Union of India and Others, Writ Petition [Civil] 196 of 2001). Supreme Court hearings have been held since then at regular intervals, and significant “interim orders” have been issued by the court from time to time regarding the scope and implementation of eight food-related schemes of the Government of India. The litigation provided a springboard for the Right to Food Campaign.