FIAN International has raised grave concerns about the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. In a policy paper published ahead of the G7 summit in Brussels on 4-5 June, the organisation analysed the initiative from a human rights perspective. The paper concludes that the New Alliance ignores general human rights principles and contradicts a human rights-based framework in key issues relevant for those most affected by hunger and malnutrition: small-scale food producers. FIAN says the G8 initiative is bluntly equating the opening of agriculture and food markets to foreign investors with combating hunger and malnutrition. Food security and nutrition is dangerously narrowed down to the general availability of food through increased productivity. The paper directly contrasts policy actions of the G8 initiative in four key areas - seeds, land, social protection/income, and nutrition - with a human rights framework. For example, while the UN-Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food asks governments to implement farmers' rights (as defined in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources), the G8-led initiative pushes for the “implementation of national seed regulation” for greater private sector involvement. FIAN also criticised the G8's narrow understanding of the nutritional dimension of food production which ignores that food and nutrition security does not simply entail increased caloric intake, but rather a consistent access to diverse, nutritious and culturally-adequate food. “The New Alliance’s investments in agricultural food production tend to focus on mainstream crops with relatively low nutritious and high caloric content, such as maize, sugar, and rice, which results in dietary gaps”, the paper argues.