The Challenge of Food Sustainability in a Fragmented Legal Framework: Principle 8 of the Rio Declaration as a Tool of Defragmentation and Effectiveness?

The multidimensional nature of food sustainability and the inherent complexity of this notion pose unprecedented challenges to decision-making processes at national and international levels. The international legal system seems, however, ill-equipped and unprepared to address these challenges as a global issue. Absent an international ad hoc regime or a legally binding instrument specifically addressing food security, food sustainability and their reciprocal interplay, various customary and treaty rules, as well as soft law instruments contribute to promoting more sustainable food systems, but in a fragmented, and sometimes only in an indirect way. This chapter intends to assess whether, and to what extent, the principle of sustainable development – and, notably, Principle 8 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development relating to the elimination and reduction of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption – can operate as a “bridge” to drive fragmentation to unity and strengthen the effectiveness of certain MEAs at the practical level, i.e. when the transition towards more sustainable systems is not regarded as a mere ideal, but as a concrete opportunity.