The 12 Misconceptions About The Right to Food

Brief answers to the following misconceptions that need to be addressed by recognizing economic human rights and using this knowledge to struggle against economic oppression of the poor and future generations:

1. We do not need rights but food.

2. Modern western agriculture will eventually produce enough food for everyone.

3. If development based on a free market will lead to growth, will it satisfy the needs of the hungry?

4. What does the Right to Food mean? Can the existence of this Right cause laziness among people?

5. Would the Right to Food be asking for too much from the government, and advocating for big government?

6. Does the Right to Food require a moral revolution of society, allowing human rights to become the foundation of interpersonal ethics?

7. Is hunger a violation of Human Rights?

8. Is the Right to Food about good governance?

9. Is the Right to Food realized if nobody is hungry anymore?

10. Is the nature of Human Rights of the first generation (civil and political) any different from the nature of the second generation (economic, social and cultural rights)?

11. Is the Right to Food justiciable? Can it be legally enforced?

12. Aren't Human Rights something mainly to be dealt with at the United Nations level? Should the FAO and the World Bank deal with the Right to Food? [author]

How good is this research?
Assessing the quality of research can be a tricky business. This blog from our editor offers some tools and tips.
Read now

Related content

Document
How Biden Can End Vaccine Apartheid
, / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
Building on spectacular scientific achievements, the rich world’s vaccine response to the pandemic within its borders has been (with notable exceptions) commendable. But the response of the international community has been mystifyingly myopic and unconscionably delinquent. We’re headed toward global vaccine apartheid.
Document
Impact of COVID-19 on RMG Sector: The False Narrative
Fairooz Subaita / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
The ready-made garments (RMG) sector is by far the most important contributor to the economy of the country, amounting to 15 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employing nearly four million people. There is no denying that the main driving force behind the RMG sector is the vast quantity of workers that it employs.
Document
The New Era of Unconditional Convergence
D. Patel, J. Sandefur, A. Subramanian / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
The central fact that has motivated the empirics of economic growth—namely unconditional divergence—is no longer true and has not been so for decades. Across a range of data sources, poorer countries have in fact been catching up with richer ones, albeit slowly, since the mid-1990s.
Document
Tracking the Scale and Speed of the World Bank’s Covid Response: April 2021 Update
, , / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
In 2020 the World Bank announced its intention to provide $104 billion in financing to developing country governments to help them respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We took stock of those efforts seven months ago in a Center for Global Development working paper and accompanying blog post.
Document
Challenges and Prospects of Youth Employment in the Post-COVID Scenario
, , / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
Public health measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 have caused massive shocks to the global economy and all aspects of human lives. The pandemic is disproportionately affecting the youths, particularly in countries like Bangladesh where youths already struggle in the labour market because of limited experience and skills and with poor quality of education (World Bank, 2019).

Eldis

The 12 Misconceptions About The Right to Food