15 Broadly speaking the right to food can be interpreted as a claim of individuals on society. It is an entitlement to be free from hunger, which derives from the assertion that the society has enough resources, both economic and institutional, to ensure that everyone is adequately nourished.36 Many countries have enacted legislation on right to food. The right to food protects the right of all human beings to feed themselves in dignity, either by producing their food or by purchasing it.37 The right to food is both a freedom and an entitlement. Freedom denotes freedom from hunger and entitlement signifies entitlement to adequate food that meets dietary needs.38 An authoritative definition of the right to food has been given by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment 12 adopted in 1999: “The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.” In 2000, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food was established by the Commission on Human Rights. According to the Special Rapporteur, the right to food is: The right to have regular, permanent and free access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.39 According to the UN Fact Sheet on Right to Food, “The right to food is an inclusive right. It is not simply a right to a minimum ration of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. It is a right to all nutritional elements that a person needs to live a healthy and active life, and to the means to access them.”40 There are three misconceptions about the right to food: first, the right to food does not mean that the right to be fed or governments have to provide free food to anyone who needs it but it is primarily the right to feed oneself in dignity. The right to food requires States to provide an 36 Jean Dreze, supra note 1, p. 55. Olivier de Schutter, Right to Food, 38 Maria Socorro I. Diokno, The Right to Adequate Food in Philippine Development Intervention, 39 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food 40 The Right to Adequate Food, Fact Sheet No. 34, The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN, 37