The reformed Committee on World Food Security is attracting interest as an innovative and inclusive global policy forum that might help to build counter power to that of the corporate-controlled global food system and the financialization of food and land. Five years down the road, how is this promise playing out? This paper will examine how the CFS is dealing with two key interconnected issues - access to land (global guidelines on land and resource tenure) and investment (principles for responsible agricultural investment). It will illustrate how strong participation by civil society has influenced the shape of these initiatives and how social movements are seeking to use them to support local peoples’ efforts to defend their rights and interests. The paper will review discursive and structural counteroffensives by corporations and their government allies, with a focus on the G8’s New Alliance, and evoke key challenges faced by the CFS.
