**6. Conclusion**

Neoliberalism has produced an unsustainable food system, which might prove inadequate to nourish future generations. Notwithstanding the steady food price increases, natural resources deterioration, loss of resilience of agricultural systems and climate change disturbances, international bodies and national governments continue to propose neoliberal

<sup>10</sup> Eisler indicates seven steps to move towards a caring economics 1-Recognize how the cultural devaluation of caring and caregiving has negatively affected economic theories, policies, and practices. 2-Support the shift from dominator to partnership cultural values and economic and social structures. 3-Change economic indicators to give value to caring and caregiving. 4 Create economic inventions that support and reward caring and caregiving. 5 Expand the economic vocabulary to include caring, teach caring economics in business and economic schools, and conduct gender-specific economic research. 6- Educate children and adults about the importance of caring and caregiving. 7- Show government and business leaders the benefits of policies that support caring and caregiving, and work for their adoption. 11 The nexus between reflexivity, autonomy and moral authority is investigated by Bagnoli (2007) in her research on moral objectivity and Kantian intellectual legacy.

capitalism, but also of "real" socialist regimes) with relationships based on partnership and cooperative behavior10. The giftgiving paradigm and caring economics help to found a new ethics for economic policy, based on the fulfillment of human needs (which is different from personal utility) through cooperative other-regarding behavior. This ethics is grounded in a notion of human subjects who, rejecting both the notions of 'modernity's man and society's being (which in Archer's terminology are the kind of agents featured respectively by the individualistic and constructionist approach of social science), possess the human capacity to transcend instrumental rationality and to have 'ultimate concerns', thanks to the distinctive human power, reflexive deliberation. Reflexive deliberation, i.e. the ability to continuously examine themselves and engage in critical reflection, is what makes individuals autonomous11. It is the basis for an autonomous society, where processes of participatory democracy can achieve order without relying on force and power, a "self-instituting" society, in Castroriadis' language, which interprets the ideals

Finally, with regards the third issue let open by the standard model, at the present there are not meaningful suggestions. Interesting insights may come from the ANT program. Whereas an ethics based on the concept of reflexive deliberation helps to integrate moral arguments in policy decision processes and to solve collective choice problems, the analytical/descriptive power of approaches such as ANT, network theory and complex system theory, helps to understand patterns and property of the food system, which is the main field/object where food policies are deployed. In fact, once the τέλοϛ of policy has been defined with respect to particular ethical concerns, still remains the problem of choosing effective, besides morally acceptable, tools and strategies of intervention. It is a matter of fact that the food system is a complex system, where the intertwining of natural objects, human beings and technological and institutional artifacts affect the system's properties and performances. Understanding this complex system, its degree of adaptivity, self organization and autonomy, is a conditio sine qua non for designing effective food

Neoliberalism has produced an unsustainable food system, which might prove inadequate to nourish future generations. Notwithstanding the steady food price increases, natural resources deterioration, loss of resilience of agricultural systems and climate change disturbances, international bodies and national governments continue to propose neoliberal

10 Eisler indicates seven steps to move towards a caring economics 1-Recognize how the cultural devaluation of caring and caregiving has negatively affected economic theories, policies, and practices. 2-Support the shift from dominator to partnership cultural values and economic and social structures. 3-Change economic indicators to give value to caring and caregiving. 4 Create economic inventions that support and reward caring and caregiving. 5 Expand the economic vocabulary to include caring, teach caring economics in business and economic schools, and conduct gender-specific economic research. 6- Educate children and adults about the importance of caring and caregiving. 7- Show government and business leaders the benefits of policies that support caring and caregiving, and work for their adoption. 11 The nexus between reflexivity, autonomy and moral authority is investigated by Bagnoli (2007) in her

research on moral objectivity and Kantian intellectual legacy.

of libertarian socialism.

policies.

**6. Conclusion** 

policies. Privatization and deregulation are passed off as bulwarks of liberty and efficiency, while they are consigning the system to corporate power and transnational financial elites. All this is made possible not only through the power of organizations with vested interests, but also through the adamant trust of the majority of academics and bureaucrats in the mainstream economics. The paper has explored the way ahead to go beyond neoliberal food policy. The main conclusion is that a viable alternative needs to recognize food as a human right, which implies a shift from the idea of food as commodity to the idea of food for community. It has been demonstrated as well that this shift requires we abandon the particular ethical and political theories underlying the standard economic model, utilitarianism and contractarianism, and look for new theories grounded on the notions of deliberative reflexivity and participatory democracy. Moreover, to design effective alternative policies it is indispensable to foster research in system and network modeling, in order to take into account the complexity and volatility of the system. Research efforts in these fields, together with the political struggles of social movements, are the true challenges for a counter-neoliberal "reloading" of the global food system.
