Hello #foodstudies20 Conference! I’m pleased to present: “The Law of the Land: A Critical Legal Geography of the Corporate Food Regime in the United States." KWs: #foodsovereignty, #criticallegalgeography, #neoliberalism, #foodregimes. Thanks for organizing @ASFS_org & @afhvs_org

I am an incoming PhD student in the Environment & Resources program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison @NelsonInstitute. I recently graduated from @Penn w/ a Master of Environmental Studies, concentration in Political Agroecology. I am also a former farmworker. #foodstudies20

I am grateful to @UPenn_MES_MSAG, & my MES thesis readers Dr. Cary Coglianese, & Dr. Madeleine Fairbairn ( @landstuff) for their support & provision of helpful feedback on this paper. Thank you to my PhD advisor @Michael_M_Bell for supporting me & my research. #foodstudies20

Food sovereignty is often thought to be an “international" issue to be resolved on the local level “over there.” #foodstudies20

Yet, critical analysis of U.S. federal laws and their impact on farmers reveals that the corporate food regime (hereafter, CFR) is exerted through U.S. federal jurisdiction in particular. #foodstudies20

In this paper, I critically analyze case law and legislation pertaining to the Farm Bill, corporate law, and antitrust law to understand the U.S. federal legal system’s role in institutionalizing the CFR. #foodstudies20

I ask: how has the U.S. federally institutionalized the CFR, & what does that tell us about how to institutionalize food sovereignty in the U.S. and beyond? #foodstudies20

How has the CFR been legally bound to the physical and human landscape via U.S. federal jurisdiction? How should these political, spatial and legal relationships be interpreted to create space for food sovereignty? #foodstudies20

A world-systems conception of the CFR is insufficient for answering questions about how power is institutionalized. A place-based analysis that prioritizes jurisdiction is key to understanding CFR power, and how to shift that power back to farmers. #foodstudies20

Jurisdiction wields CFR territorial power by shaping its designated square of soil, influencing the court room & legislation, exploiting & impoverishing the farmer, & back again. Law-in-place powerfully constitutes the human & nonhuman geographic agri-foodscape #foodstudies20

Power in the CFR occurs across and through particular geographic spaces, which the law cements into place differentially across jurisdictions. Uncovering power at the U.S. federal level demonstrates this argument: #foodstudies20

(Exhibit A) The Farm Bill Commodities Title subsidizes the overproduction of crops for export to keep up with a neoliberal global marketplace, which displaces farmers in the U.S. and abroad. #foodstudies20

(A1) This undermines food sovereignty for farmers everywhere by replacing local food systems & deepening hunger when the market inevitably fluctuates. Farmers are kept underpaid & incentivized to grow cash crops for export rather than crops for local consumption. #foodstudies20

(A2) The market stabilization programs of the AAA of 1933, the first Farm Bill, have been steadily dismantled in tandem with the rise of the CFR. These include parity pricing & supply management policies. #foodstudies20

(A3) The food sovereignty movement in the U.S. must lobby & advocate for the restoration of market stabilization programs to the Commodities Title of the Farm Bill, and an end to subsidies for agribusinesses who overproduce for global trade. #foodstudies20

(Exhibit B) Agribusinesses have gained political & economic power through a series of court decisions that solidified their legal personhood, rights to free speech through campaign contributions, & their legal obligation to prioritize shareholder profits.
#foodstudies20

(B1) These court decisions, comprised of a series of precedents across various times & spaces, have increasingly allowed corporate agribusinesses to lobby politicians to uphold the legislation that benefits them. #foodstudies20

(B2) This complex web of court decisions could be preempted by constitutional amendments. They should not pertain to the legal personhood of corporations, but rather to the problems of shareholder primacy & the privatization of campaign finance. #foodstudies20

(B2a) These include amendments that require all political campaigns to be publicly financed, & all corporations re-charter themselves as B-corps. Any non-B-corp or privately funded campaign would be deemed unconstitutional. "Personhood" allows taxation & regulation #foodstudies20

(Exhibit C) The corporate food regime is also institutionalized at the federal level in the U.S. via the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division’s implementation of antitrust laws. Federal judges have long been groomed to rule in favor of the CFR, at the expense of farmers. #foodstudies20

(C1) The approval of agribusiness mergers under the Sherman Act & the Clayton Act are unlawful. The legislative texts restore market competition, but mergers have monopolized the marketplace & impeded trade and competition in local & regional agri-food economies. #foodstudies20

(C2) The myriad of economic & physical harms incurred by smallholder farmers in the U.S. and abroad would certainly provide them standing for judicial review of the agency actions that have harmed them and their businesses. A case can easily be made in their favor. #foodstudies20

(C3) Farmers & food sovereignty may be served well by the creation of a coalition to seek judicial review of agribusiness merger approvals. Antitrust laws should be interpreted through their plain text & help farmers compete in the marketplace, not impede them. #foodstudies20

(C4) In addition, reinstating price supports would protect farmers from price-fixing effects initiated by market agreements w/ processors. Antitrust court precedents have allowed processors to use these agreements to lower prices, at the expense of farmer income. #foodstudies20

Thank you for reading! I would be happy to answer any Q’s, & always appreciate any feedback the #foodstudies20 community might have to offer.