Few issues animate debate about the global food system as much as the role of international trade and, in particular, that of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Indeed, the WTO is a subject that polarizes debate among food scholars and activists. Some scholars see the WTO as imperfect but necessary to ensure a transparent and rule-based system to manage international food trade that is preferable to the exercise of unilateral raw power by governments. For others, the WTO represents the apex of neoliberal globalization and they regard it as an institution that has entrenched corporate interests and control over the food system at the expense of public interests. For many food activists, in particular, the WTO became a principal target for mass public protests; it also galvanized the transnational food sovereignty movement that has long sought to get the WTO “out of agriculture”.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Clapp, J., Desmarais, A., Margulis, M., (2025), "GFT - Global food trade", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i2.80)

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1. agriculture
2. food security
3. India
4. international trade
5. WTO

Original publication: Clapp, Jennifer; Desmarais, Annette; Margulis, Matias. "GFT - Global food trade." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 2, no. 2, 2015, pp. 75-76. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i2.80. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.