The Right to Food in West Virginia

Carolina Rascon* and Joshua Lohnes

Food Justice Lab, Center for Resilient Communities, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Oral-Behavioral & Social Sciences (Oral Presentation #46)

Student’s Major: Regents Bachelor of Arts

Article 11 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explicitly describes the right of all people to adequate food and freedom from hunger. The United States is one of only a handful of countries that has not ratified this treaty. Scholars studying the progressive realization of the right to food highlight the critical need for states to code it into law, thus compelling public and private institutions to address food insecurity and hunger while expanding political participation in the food system. In November 2020, the West Virginia Food for All Coalition held a virtual summit that brought together scholars, activists, and community members to discuss the relationship between hunger and food systems and opportunities to progressively realize the Right to Food in West Virginia through the policy process. This research explores the evolution of this advocacy drawing on ethnographic action research methods (Tachi et. al, 2003) developing the Voices of Hunger WV platform. Specifically, it reflects on four months of scholar-activism alongside Food for All Coalition members, policy makers and food insecure individuals sharing their stories in an effort to introduce and debate a constitutional amendment for the Right to Food during the 2021 West Virginia legislative session. The analysis demonstrates the key role played by activists and policy entrepreneurs at international, national, state and local levels and the need to build solidarities and political power across geographic contexts to realize the right to food for all.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: Other, Internship with the WVU Food Justice Lab