ABSTRACT

This Handbook provides the first comprehensive review and synthesis of knowledge and new thinking on how food and food systems can be thought, interpreted and practiced around the old/new paradigms of commons and commoning. The overall aim is to investigate the multiple constraints that occur within and sustain the dominant food and nutrition regime and to explore how it can change when different elements of the current food systems are explored and re-imagined from a commons perspective. 

The book sparks the debate on food as a commons between and within disciplines, with particular attention to spaces of resistance (food sovereignty, de-growth, open knowledge, transition town, occupations, bottom-up social innovations) and organizational scales (local food, national policies, South–South collaborations, international governance and multi-national agreements). Overall, it shows the consequences of a shift to the alternative paradigm of food as a commons in terms of food, the planet and living beings. 

Chapters 1 and 24 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. 

chapter 1|22 pages

Introduction

The food commons are coming …

part I|2 pages

Rebranding food and alternative narratives of transition

part II|2 pages

Exploring the multiple dimensions of food

chapter 7|18 pages

Food, needs and commons

chapter 9|17 pages

Food as cultural core

Human milk, cultural commons and commodification

chapter 10|16 pages

Food as a commodity

part III|2 pages

Food-related elements considered as commons

part IV|2 pages

Commoning from below: Current examples of commons-based food systems

chapter 16|15 pages

The ‘Campesino a Campesino’ Agroecology Movement in Cuba

Food sovereignty and food as a commons

chapter 17|15 pages

The commoning of food governance in Canada

Pathways towards a national food policy?

chapter 18|15 pages

Food surplus as charitable provision

Obstacles to re-introducing food as a commons

chapter 19|15 pages

Community-building through food self-provisioning in central and eastern Europe

An analysis through the food commons framework

part V|2 pages

Dialogue of alternative narratives of transition

chapter 21|13 pages

Land as a Commons

Examples from the UK and Italy

chapter 22|14 pages

The centrality of food for social emancipation

Civic food networks as real utopias projects 1

part VI|2 pages

Conclusions

chapter 24|24 pages

Food as commons

Towards a new relationship between the public, the civic and the private