Hope Johnson's new book is one of the latest attempts to deal with the rapid development of international agricultural law and policy in recent years. She explores the way in which agricultural aspects have expanded globally as well as the consequences thereof. She expresses her concern that much existing international regulation has not been aligning with the goal of food security to achieve sustainable food systems. Therefore, the book aims to cover this gap, in both the agricultural and regulation aspects. She examines the need for regulatory intervention to food system policy developed under a rights-based approach [RBA], which underlines this book's character.

Part I raises questions and factual issues facing food and agriculture in world food security. In answering those queries, Johnson develops a conceptual framework through criteria based on RBA, to analyze how international regulations intersecting with agriculture could contribute to world food security.

In Part II, Johnson examines international “land” regulations against recent trends in respect of agricultural land acquisitions. She differentiates “soil” from land through an ecosystem approach, in which she focuses on soil degradation and conservation, including climate change. The international regulatory framework for both land and soil are found to be inadequately aligned with a RBA's agricultural regulation. These elements link to some “water” issues which have not been subject to international regulation, e.g. wastewater and international regulations on water regimes have not been integrated with other agricultural resources such as land use or with human rights. Regarding “seeds”, the author realizes that the regulations intersect with crop genetic resources used in agriculture, causing the expansion of intellectual property rights and biotechnology for both resources. Johnson then provides an analysis of regulatory frameworks on residue levels, risk assessment, and hazard identification as regards “pesticides”. Last, she focuses on the role of Agreement on Agriculture in “World Trade” in achieving world food security. The complex relations between trade and food security have resulted in limited acceptance of many agricultural aspects of the agreement, thus ensuring difficulties in achieving world food security.

In Part III, Johnson concludes that progressive-transformative changes should be made to international regulatory frameworks on agriculture.

The book gives a wide-ranging view of recent agricultural challenges in the agricultural law arena. The book is insightful and worth reading for legal and non-legal members of government, academia, and professionals who either work or are interested in agricultural study.