Addressing the Right to Food to Transform the Food System in the Global North

Fall 2025 Harry ’51 and Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series

About the speaker

Francesca Benedetta Felici is an anthropologist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rome La Sapienza. She has been working for years on food systems and the right to food. She has held research positions at various universities and international research centers. Her main areas of interest include urban food policies and food poverty. Her current doctoral project focuses on the right to food in the context of public food procurement, with particular attention to food in prisons. She collaborates with the Observatory on Food Insecurity and Poverty at CURSA and is a consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Abstract

Addressing the Right to Food is essential to transform the food system in the Global North, making it sustainable for the environment and just for people. This right must be understood as universal access to adequate, healthy, and culturally appropriate food that respects human dignity and enhances individual capabilities. Today’s food system is often described as “broken”: the cheapest products are those with the highest environmental impact, resulting from intensive agricultural practices that exploit workers and harm ecosystems, while also contributing to diet-related diseases such as obesity and malnutrition. Guaranteeing the Right to Food requires not only tackling food insecurity but also increasing accessibility for all, through policies that reshape production and consumption patterns. 

A central tool to achieve this goal is public food procurement, through which the state can play a proactive role in securing access to sustainable and healthy food. By leveraging its purchasing power, the state can influence markets and ensure that public institutions such as schools, hospitals, and prisons provide meals that uphold nutritional quality and social justice. This approach directly addresses food poverty, not only by providing aid but also by creating structural solutions such as public supermarkets and regulated food aid systems that prioritize dignity over conditionality. 

During the intervention, the speaker will present her doctoral research at the University of La Sapienza in Rome, alongside the work carried out over several years with the Observatory on Food Insecurity and Poverty of Rome (Italy). In both contexts, she uses the Right to Food as a critical lens to explore how policies and practices can transform the food system and expand access to fair, sustainable food. This perspective highlights the need for systemic change, positioning the Right to Food as a guiding principle to reimagine not only food aid but the very foundations of how food is produced, distributed, and consumed in contemporary societies.

About the seminar series

The Harry ’51 & Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series showcases innovative approaches to development with experts from around the globe. Each year, the series attracts online registrants from over 45 countries and more than 350 organizations. 

Seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:20-1:10 p.m. eastern time during the semester in 175 Warren Hall. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend in-person or via Zoom.

The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.