Right to food in the Chilean constitution: legal, social and nutritional elements for a proposal

Abstract

The Human Right to Food is not incorporated in the Chilean Constitution. To identify the legal, social, and nutritional elements for its incorporation into the new Constitution, and to draft a text proposal for the constituent discussion. Descriptive and qualitative study on the perceptions of experts and key actors of the food chain in Chile. The sample was for convenience and included civil society, academia, international organizations, parliamentarians, food traders and producers, and national and local authorities (n = 26). The research team, previously trained and standardized, applied semi-structured online surveys, which were recorded and transcribed. Through an inductive approach, a thematic analysis was carried out using the Atlas.ti 9.0 software. Eighty-one percent of the interviewees were in favor of the Constitutional incorporation of the Right to Food. According to interviews, a constitutional text was proposed considering the characteristics of adequate, healthy, safe, and nutritious foods. Also, the food items must be available, physically and economically accessible, and culturally relevant. A guaranteed citizen participation, food sovereignty, food security, and environmental sustainability must be considered. The high prevalence of malnutrition due to excess, poor diet, and food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a current Constitution that does not explicitly guarantee physical and economic access to food, establish a factual and normative background that justifies the incorporation of this right in a new Constitution.