foe-food-sovereignty-bookletweb-8bd4cae6634617b7.pdf

The guide critiques the agribusiness investment model, highlighting how bilateral investment treaties and mechanisms like Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) prioritize corporate profits over state sovereignty and environmental protections. It details the negative impacts of industrial agriculture, including land grabbing, biodiversity loss, and high greenhouse gas emissions. As an alternative, the document promotes agroecology led by small-scale food producers, citing evidence that such methods can increase crop yields and enhance climate resilience while supporting food sovereignty.

• Trade and investment agreements, including bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements (FTAs), prioritize agribusiness profits and can supersede state sovereignty, hindering the ability of governments to protect social and environmental interests.
• The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism allows large corporations—typically those with over US$1 billion in annual revenue—to sue states in secret arbitration courts for implementing policies that impede profit, creating a 'chilling effect' that discourages environmental and social regulations.
• Industrial agriculture, supported by these investment frameworks, causes significant environmental damage, including high greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and land and water degradation, while exacerbating hunger and diet-related diseases.
• The agribusiness model facilitates land grabbing and the displacement of rural communities, often protecting these deals through investment treaties that block community legal challenges in state courts.
• Agroecology, led by small-scale producers, is presented as a superior alternative that increases agricultural resilience to climate change and regenerates natural resources.
• Research on 286 agroecological projects across 57 poor countries demonstrated an average crop yield increase of 79% and improved environmental functions, such as carbon sequestration and reduced pesticide use.
• Smallholder producers are the most critical part of the global food system, producing 70-80% of the food consumed in the developing world, yet they face dwindling investment compared to agribusiness.

APA

Chandrasekaran, K., & Carrau, N. (n.d.). foe-food-sovereignty-bookletweb-8bd4cae6634617b7.pdf. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/foe-food-sovereignty-bookletWEB.pdf

Chicago

Chandrasekaran, Kirtana, and Natalia Carrau. foe-food-sovereignty-bookletweb-8bd4cae6634617b7.pdf. Friends of the Earth International, n.d. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/foe-food-sovereignty-bookletWEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chandrasekaran |first1=Kirtana |last2=Carrau |first2=Natalia |title=foe-food-sovereignty-bookletweb-8bd4cae6634617b7.pdf |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/foe-food-sovereignty-bookletWEB.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chandrasekaranndfoefoodsovereigntybookletweb8bd4cae6634617b7pdf, author = {Chandrasekaran, Kirtana and Carrau, Natalia}, title = {{foe-food-sovereignty-bookletweb-8bd4cae6634617b7.pdf}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/foe-food-sovereignty-bookletWEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }