Food insecurity: Imagination, utopias and feminist legal methods

Can we imagine a world without hunger? This question underpins the work of this article. When the world seems plagued with conflict after conflict, from state and interpersonal violence, to environmental degradation, is there a way to imagine a reality beyond this never-ending list of harms? Food insecurity continues to increase around the world. The lack of access to food is felt by those in and out of conflict. Despite the fact that the complexity of the growth, production, distribution, and cost of food affects everyone, it is not felt the same by everyone. Food is also personal, it relates to cultural, religious, and individual circumstances, and the relationship to food is influenced by our gender, race, socioeconomic status, and dis/ability, amongst others. When problems occur that restrict access to food, international law is often seen as a mechanism for addressing these issues. However, this has not always been successful. In this article, I argue that we must take time to imagine international law differently and dream of utopias. I utilise feminist and queer approaches to rethink international law via a discussion of food insecurity. I see food as the lynchpin for both understanding international law’s limitations and reaffirming the importance of prioritising feminist methods.