ABSTRACT
Facilitating the steps urged in Chapters 3 and 4 – adopting a new form of “pluralistic sovereignty” and establishing “eco-states” with international legal personality – would be the establishment of a new international organization, the Global Corporate Trust for Agroecological Integrity (GCTAI). The GCTAI would be designed to avoid the shortcomings of existing international institutions, including those whose work focuses directly on agriculture. After all, such institutions have proven themselves ill-suited to handle the challenges the world now faces, including the agricultural crisis and global climate disruption. Perhaps this inadequacy is unsurprising; after all, such institutions are still quite novel and they were established mainly to expand food production and improve rural economic circumstances, not to bring radical reform to the agricultural system per se or to restore the world’s ecosystems. However, the disappointments encountered thus far in the performance of international organizations should not cause us to abandon the multilateralist philosophy that prompted their creation. Instead, we should strive to create a “fourth generation” international organization by which our species will recognize and discharge its responsibility as trustees for generations to come, whose well-being turns on agricultural reform and ecological restoration.
