More Than Labels: Legal Keys to Defending the Right to Adequate Food
In a context of regulatory backsliding that threatens public health policies, Fundeps presents More Than Labels, a collective legal compendium that provides concrete tools to defend the Law on the Promotion of Healthy Eating and to strengthen the human right to adequate food in Argentina.
The Law on the Promotion of Healthy Eating is a key public policy for advancing the human rights to adequate food and to health in Argentina. Its comprehensive design—grounded in scientific evidence and a human rights–based approach—positions it as a structural pillar of food policy and a central instrument for regulating the food environment and protecting the population, particularly groups in situations of greater vulnerability.
However, shortly after its implementation began, the law faced a scenario of regulatory regression. Resistance from the food industry, far from remaining at the level of public discourse, translated into regulatory flexibilizations and administrative decisions that weaken the protection standards defined by Congress. These measures, adopted by state bodies through lower-ranking regulations, jeopardize rights already secured and compromise the constitutional and international human rights obligations of the Argentine State.
Against this backdrop, More Than Labels: Legal Keys to Defending the Law on the Promotion of Healthy Eating is presented as both a collective endeavor and a strategic tool for the active defense of the Healthy Eating Law. The compendium brings together contributions from diverse authors who, drawing on complementary legal approaches, offer clear and actionable arguments to uphold the law’s full force and effect, demand its effective implementation, and challenge regressions at the political, institutional, and judicial levels.
The Healthy Eating Law as a Turning Point in Food Regulation
In her article, María Eugenia Marichal analyzes the Healthy Eating Law as a response to the historical fragmentation of food regulation in Argentina. She characterizes it as a “normative suturing” that articulates health, production, consumption, and food safety within a rights-based framework, and underscores the need to safeguard the State’s regulatory autonomy in public health against attempts at administrative deregulation and regional harmonization that prioritize commercial interests.
Healthy Eating Through a Human Rights–Based Approach
Maximiliano Carrasco examines the law through the lens of the Human Rights–Based Approach, linking it to the State’s constitutional and international obligations. His central argument is clear: the Healthy Eating Law embodies the principles of progressivity and non-regression, and any measure that lowers its standards triggers a presumption of illegitimacy that must be subject to strict scrutiny.
Courts as Arenas of Contestation
In their joint work, María Laura Fons Camarena and Agustina Mozzoni demonstrate how the Healthy Eating Law strengthens the judicial enforceability of the right to adequate food. By enhancing normative density, the law enables a shift beyond assistance-based approaches and opens the door to strategic litigation, positioning the Judiciary as a key barrier against corporate interference and regulatory rollback.
Environmental Justice Contributions to the Right to Food
Ananda María Lavayen advances an innovative reading that connects adequate food with the experience of environmental justice. Her article draws on tools such as broad standing, the dynamic burden of proof, and structural justice approaches, and argues that the full implementation of the Healthy Eating Law is a necessary condition for advancing the effective enforceability of this right.
The Healthy Eating Law and the Consumer Protection System
From a consumer law perspective, Dante Rusconi analyzes how the Healthy Eating Law integrates into the federal consumer protection system. His contribution highlights the strategic role of provinces and municipalities, which possess concrete powers to monitor compliance and impose sanctions, even in contexts of inaction or regression at the national level.
A Tool for Active Defense
Far from being a merely descriptive analysis, More Than Labels seeks to strengthen advocacy, litigation, and civic oversight capacities in a context marked by the weakening of public health policies. The publication reaffirms that defending the Healthy Eating Law is synonymous with defending the right to adequate food, public health, and the role of the State as a guarantor of rights.
Contact:
Maga Ailén Merlo Vijarra, magamerlov@fundeps.org
