Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Land is critical to the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, yet threats to small-scale producers and marginalized groups are accelerating. From the push to financialize land to the ‘green grabs’ taking place in the name of green growth, we are facing rising, multi-dimensional land inequality, i.e. a new ‘land squeeze’. Green grabs currently account for 20% of land deals. Today’s global conservation agenda (including biodiversity offsets) and carbon markets are among the main driving forces behind this trend and generating major risks. In addition, the dominant green agenda has its roots in longstanding approaches to land conservation, including the colonial narratives that dismantled the food and cultural systems of Indigenous Peoples, pastoralist communities, and other communities around the world. In this paper, we present the latest data on green grabbing from a food systems perspective. We analyze the negative processes affecting land access for small-scale producers and marginalized groups. We showcase how green grabbing affects communities on the ground, and how they are resisting and forging alternative paths for environmental protection rooted in the Right to Land. For this, we draw on regional dialogues with smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, Black and Brown food producers, racialized migrants, and other marginalized communities from North America/Turtle Island, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Lastly, we invite session participants to discuss the role of policy and governance reform to halt green grabs - including Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the campaigns for “Real Zero”, and the possibilities for agrarian reform.