In the latest episode of the ICA Legal Office’s “Interviews with Members and Experts” series —where we explore the various dimensions and aspects of cooperative law with lawyers, public policy professionals, and practitioners— our Director of Legislation, Santosh Kumar, speaks with Simon Blondeau, Legal Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, where he works on legal issues related to agrifood transformations, cooperatives, and family farming, as well as the ongoing UN International Year of Women Farmers.

We had a deep conversation on the role of law in building fairer and more resilient agrifood systems. In this interview, Simon and Santosh discussed cooperatives as a type of enterprise shaped by international law, socio-economic rights and responsibilities, and practical country-level legal frames that ...