Cluster IV — Chapter 68

Food Sovereignty

Giovanna Micarelli, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá, Colombia

Keywords: agribusiness, food commons, Justice, plural rights to food, social movements

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Definition
History
Different Perspectives
Applications
Further Reading

Definition

Food sovereignty is a plural concept and practice that emerged out of resistance to the dominant model of agribusiness globalization and its harmful effects on people and the planet. Food sovereignty argues that to achieve the realization of the human right to food it is not enough to focus on the availability and access to food without touching the question of how food is produced and by whom. In the perspective adopted by a wide variety of social movements and initiatives, both locally and globally, food sovereignty implies prioritizing local agricultural production; access of peasants and landless people to land, water, and seeds; the right of consumers to be able to decide what they consume, and how and by whom it is produced; and the right of countries to protect themselves from “dumping” (low priced agricultural and food imports). Food sovereignty entails using and managing land, territory, seeds, and biodiversity according to autonomous and sustainable agroecological choices; fighting against GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms); establishing or recovering local circuits of production and consumption; reclaiming local knowledge, practices, and food traditions; and creating cosmopolitan solidarity among social groups struggling for dignity and justice in food production and consumption.

History

Driven by the interests of large transnational corporations and the world’s political superpowers, international institutions such as the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank, and the WTO (World Trade Organization) implemented neoliberal agrifood policies that enabled these corporations to dominate the global food market. As a result, local agricultural economies are being destroyed, and the genetic, cultural, and environmental heritage of our planet, along with our health, are being jeopardized. Land grabbing, large-scale land concentration, an emphasis on raw material exports over local economies, and the spread of monoculture farming reliant on heavy use of fossil fuels, agrochemicals, and GMOs have caused significant and irreversible socio-environmental damage. This has included the destruction of ecosystems, soil and biodiversity depletion, and the exacerbation of global warming. In parallel, there is a disturbing pattern of violence against groups claiming land rights and territorial autonomy. Traditional knowledge and food systems are being systematically eroded, and exploitative practices such as slave labor persist. Hundreds of millions of farmers are forced into debt or driven to migrate from rural areas. Despite claims of modernization, agribusiness essentially replicates the colonial exploitation of land, nature, and people.

It is in response to this situation that food movements worldwide have advocated food sovereignty as a way to radically redesign more just, democratic, and sustainable food systems (see Community Supported Agriculture, Alternative Consumer Cooperatives). The concept of food sovereignty was first introduced to public debate by La Via Campesina (LVC), a global network representing approximately 200 million farmers, during the World Food Summit in 1996. Despite growing calls from social movements, it wasn’t until 2012 that FAO initiated discussions on food sovereignty as an additional paradigm to food security. In 2014, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food helped draw attention to food sovereignty as a necessary condition for achieving the full realization of the human right to food.

The 1996 definition of food sovereignty by LVC refers to the right of peoples and countries to define their agricultural and food policies without dumping from third countries. Over the years, food sovereignty has acquired broader meanings of local, self-dependent, biodiverse, sustainable, communal, fair, healthy, and culturally appropriate production and consumption.

First, social movements have placed subsistence networks and peasant knowledge systems at the core of food sovereignty. This entails a biocultural understanding of food systems, in which farmers are not merely food producers, but upholders of invaluable knowledge and expertise in agroecological management.

Second, there is a shift from land to territory. Food sovereignty entails the sustainable management of lands, territories, watersheds, seeds, livestock, and biodiversity. It is based on farming people’s right to freely use and protect genetic resources they have developed, and to defend their territories from the actions of transnational corporations. Transcending mere geographical boundaries, the territory refers to the collective wisdom and communal stewardship practices honed over generations by its inhabitants. Intertwining a deep sense of identity with particular landscapes and agroecological traditions, food sovereignty brings forward a place-based understanding of rights.

Third, food sovereignty movements have placed the commons at the core of food rights. While the FAO qualified food security as a global public good in 2009, the commons bypasses the private/public divide, addressing the rising tide of privatization and dispossession of shared resources. Food sovereignty movements join in the transformational pathway undertaken by a range of socio-environmental movements organizing to defend the commons: these include water, seeds, landscapes, and biocultural diversity. In so doing, dominant narratives of nature, the economy, development, and democracy perpetuated by market forces and the State are challenged. This lays the groundwork for a new political discourse centered on the conditions necessary for achieving social justice, sustainability, and dignified life for all (see Foundational Economy, Steady-State Economy, Ecosocial Contract, Buen Vivir and Buenos Convivires).

Different Perspectives

A commitment to diversity and intercultural dialogue has greatly contributed to the meaning of food sovereignty. In this regard, Indigenous perspectives are especially relevant for advancing a plural understanding of food rights and sovereignty (see Buen Vivir and Buenos Convivires). Indigenous food movements stress that food sovereignty depends on nurturing healthy and interdependent relationships with a multitude of natural communities working together. Even though Indigenous territories maintain the world’s greatest biodiversity, the food insecurity of Indigenous populations is twice that of the non-Indigenous population, according to the FAO. Hunger and malnutrition result from the complex interplay of colonial and neo-colonial power structures that are responsible for the dispossession of lands and territories, environmental degradation, cultural erosion, and the breakdown of community economies. This suggests that a plural reimagining of food rights cannot be achieved solely by considering the cultural acceptability of food. Recent discussions have underscored the importance of non-nutritional values associated with food in shaping the overall image and well-being of individuals and communities. What’s more, for Indigenous peoples, the right to food is inseparable from their right to the territory and self-determination. Food sovereignty is, by all accounts, an anti-colonial struggle.

Applications

Food sovereignty positively impacts the multiple dimensions of sustainability from the bottom up, bridging the gap between urban consumers and farmers, enhancing community food systems, promoting active citizenship and democratic participation (see Citizen-Consumer), and fostering resilience and cooperation while reducing dependency on the market. In both the Global North and the Global South, spanning rural and urban areas alike, initiatives are on the rise. Local organizations, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, peasants, urban farmers, and consumers connected across different scales of collective action and solidarity are reshaping food paradigms, nurturing healthier, more equitable foodscapes while promoting socio-environmental justice and sustainability. Through agroecological practices, local supply chains, school gardens, ethical buying groups, urban agriculture, and the recovery of food landscapes and traditions, among other initiatives, they both resist agribusiness food systems and foster social innovation (see Grassroots Innovation), where people and local communities are at the forefront as agents of change. These diverse initiatives build a critical mass to drive the transition to fair and sustainable policies that address hunger, poverty, and malnutrition, while also working to reduce biodiversity loss, food waste, land degradation, and global warming.

Food Sovereignty

Definition

History

Different Perspectives

Applications

Further Reading