Dismantling and rebuilding the food system after COVID-19: Ten principles for redistribution and regeneration

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and cost economies trillions of dollars. Yet state responses have done little to address the negative externalities of the corporate food regime, which has contributed to, and exacerbated, the impacts of the pandemic. In this paper, we build on calls from the grassroots for states to undertake a strategic dismantling of the corporate food regime through redistributive policies and actions across scales, financed through reparations by key actors in the corporate food regime. We present a strategic policy framework drawn from the food sovereignty movement, outlined here as the “5Ds of Redistribution”: Decolonization, Decarbonization, Diversification, Democratization, and Decommodification. We then consider what would need to occur post-redistribution to ensure that the corporate food regime does not re-emerge, and pose five guiding principles grounded in Indigenous food sover¬eignty to rebuild regenerative food systems, out¬lined here as the “5Rs of Regeneration”: Relation¬ality, Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Rights. Together these ten principles for redistri¬bution and regeneration provide a framework for food systems transformation after COVID-19.