‘Just food’. The normative obligations of private agrifood governance

Abstract

Global agrifood governance faces enormous environmental and social challenges that demand the development of effective, just, and legitimate solutions. In this context, private governance institutions, in the form of private standards and certification schemes, have developed into a major institutional response in the pursuance of sustainable agrifood development. While International Relations and political theory have examined private governance institutions in agrifood from the perspective of democratic legitimacy and problem-solving effectiveness, surprisingly little attention has been paid on their relationship to questions of equity and justice, however. As a result we lack systematic understanding of the justice concerns raised by private governance; we cannot effectively address injustice in agrifood governance; and we lack guidance on principles that can attribute ethical responsibilities to private institutions. This paper makes an attempt to outline the basis for a normative framework on agrifood governance, in general, and private agrifood governance, more specifically by delineating: (a) the reasons why private governance institutions fall under the scope of justice; (b) the principles, subjects and dimensions of just private agrifood governance; and (c) institutional transformations to foster agrifood justice.