Binding the Hand that Feeds Them: The Agreement on Agriculture, Transnational Corporations and the Right to Adequate Food in Developing Countries

This chapter seeks to clarify the impact of the WTO agricultural trade regime and the related unregulated activities of transnational corporate actors on food security in developing states. It investigates the link between the structure of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, corporate concentration in agricultural markets and food insecurity in developing countries. It does this through an analysis of the right to adequate food, the key tenets of the current agricultural trade regime and related state practice and corporate activities. It concludes by considering proposals for reform in the current Doha Round of WTO negotiations, and the implications for the sovereignty of developing countries, in terms of national policy space to protect and develop their agriculture sector and the right to food.