Comparative analysis of legislative approaches to street food in South American metropolises

Street food trade plays an important role in contemporary urban areas in South America. It represents a viable employment opportunity for vulnerable groups and ensures food access for a large part of the middle- and low-income working classes. Nonetheless, food safety is often at risk and widespread informality undermines the development and legitimacy of the sector. Street food stands at the crossroads where three equally fundamental rights meet: The individual right to work, the collective right to access and use public spaces, and the right to food security—a crossroads where risks of clashes are lurking, and issues of priority arise. How do policy-makers face this tangled phenomenon? What drives their policy-making? How do legal frameworks shape street food vending? The author analyzes the legislation regulating the trade of street food enacted by local administrations in six major South American capital cities: Buenos Aires, Bogotá, La Paz, Lima, Montevideo, and Santiago. By comparing them, the author explores how each city’s history, socio-demographic composition, economic and productive structure, and political tradition shape the approach of authorities towards street food, and how and to what extent legislations enacted shape the sector. Despite the differences, all legislations analyzed share three elements: First of all, a pauperistic notion of street trade as a marginal, possibly temporary economic sector suiting poor people only, especially in the emergency of economic crisis. Second, an exclusive tendency banning vendors from the city centers, coupled with the general limitation to deploy which inherently characterizes street vending. Finally, a hygienistic approach aimed at ensuring food safety through vendors’ sterilization only, neglecting the role of consumers’ awareness and habits, and seldom envisaging the provision of services and infrastructure where vending takes place.