Study 3: Ecodestruction and the Right to Food: The Cases of Water ...

Starving the Future Study 3
I. Introduction: Water, Biodiversity, and the Right to
Food
Water is the cradle of life – and biodiversity is life’s unfolding symphony. It is between these two poles
that ecosystems develop, such as the soils, forests and marine systems. Their links to the human right
to food have been investigated in earlier studies. 1 Human society together with its political and social
institutions and its economy are but a part of the larger ecosystems of Nature and subject to the same
laws and limitations.
Through overconsumption and population growth the human species has recently started exhausting
and polluting the cradle of life – and diminishing the voices in life’s symphony: Upto a hundred species
get extinguished every day 2 – the largest rate of extinction in the history of life on this planet. 3
The dependence of human society on water is obvious. Water is crucial: a determinant of health, an
ingredient to agriculture, an input for industry. Whereas the importance of water as a part of food and for
the production of food are easy to grasp, the food-related importance of biodiversity might not be quite
as obvious, although in a more intricate way it is equally essential for the production of food (and for
many other human purposes) – besides having an intrinsic value in itself. Both, the water cycle and
biodiversity suffer man-made destruction with grave consequences for people’s access to food – now
and in future. Control over water and (nowadays also) biodiversity can be a tool for oppression. The
freedom and human dignity of marginalized groups – and sometimes even large sectors of the
population – is at stake.
The first civilizations have developped around the control and management of water: Mesopotamia
(Euphrates and Tigris), Egypt (Nile), India (Indus), China (Hoangho, Yangtze). Civilizations since the
dawn of civilization have been beset with oppression, violence and the exercise of brute force. Access
to water has been a key issue in this context. The concept of civilization, on the other hand, also
embodies an attempt to confine the use of force and put a check on oppression within a concept of
social justice and – in modern times - have it based on transparent mechanisms and legal procedures:
The rule of law, based nationally and internationally on human rights.
The human right to food – just as other human rights as well - is meant as a mechanism for deprived or
threatened persons or groups to secure a certain basic standard in society without being dependent on
the benevolence of the rich and powerful who control the bulk of resources. Human rights are to be
realized with certainty through courts or similar procedures - even against the interests of ruling elites.
In the past decades human rights have become increasingly important terms of reference: Economic
and social human rights categories were applied to a growing number of contexts without giving up the
essential unity across the different classes of economic, social, cultural, civil and political human rights.
Three key elements of human rights are to be distinguished: Certain basic standards in the different
realms of life in society to which everybody in society has a legitimate claim. Secondly the idea that
states must not be oppressors but protect people against oppression. Thirdly the duty to introduce legal
or other mechanisms which would allow victims of oppression to have the State do its duty.
The basic standard (or “normative content”) of the right to adequate food describes a certain quality of
life to which everybody is entitled to under this right. The absence of this basic standard would be
conceived as deprivation – and pushing people into deprivation and/or keeping them there is seen as
oppression.
FIAN International 100
June 2002