The Right to Adequate Food and Security of Supply: Reinforcing the Role of Intellectual Property Rights as a Global Instrument to Secure Access for All

The global policy underpinning the concept of food security is not entirely new; it has been part of a global discussion for over a century. What appears new is that at the back of the risk posed by increasing population growth and climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the failings in the global food security policy landscape. Here, the normative contents of the unified rights-based international instruments teach that food supply should function as a human-right matter; still, the realistic snapshot is that it follows a different path, namely market-oriented fundamentals. We can learn immediately from this dichotomy that whereas the Food and Agriculture Organisation has positioned food as a humanitarian commodity, from the perspective of international trade jurisprudence, food is seen as a commercial product. In an attempt to resolve the complex nature of the security in food supply, the authors pursue a key question of whether the patent landscape presents a stronger opportunity for local technological incubation to ensure sustainable supply of food for all. The article analyses the intricate interactions between human right conventions, international trade law and global policy on food security. It proposes that future food security will be achieved if countries implement sui generis regimes and strengthen the exclusive rights of local technological innovators in agro-biotechnology and plant breeding.