Session 16 – Food Sovereignty

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Define food sovereignty
• Articulate key principles of food sovereignty
• Compare and contrast food security and food sovereignty

Key Terms + Concepts

• Food sovereignty

Required Readings + Resources

• Desmarais, A., & Wittman, H. (2014). Farmers, foodies and First Nations: getting to food sovereignty in Canada. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 1153–1173. Access through UBC Library

The Emergence of Food Sovereignty

• Contributing Author: Susanna Klassen
  

Food sovereignty is commonly defined as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”. It is a multi-faceted concept with dimensions of ecological health, social equity and empowerment. Food sovereignty can be considered to have seven principals or pillars:

1. Food sovereignty focuses on food for people, putting people’s need for food at the center of policies, and insisting that food is more than just a commodity.
2. Food sovereignty values food providers, supporting sustainable livelihoods and respecting the work of all food providers.
3. Food sovereignty localizes food systems, reducing the distance between food providers and consumers. It rejects dumping and inappropriate food aid and resists dependency on remote and unaccountable corporations.
4. Food sovereignty puts control locally, placing control in the hands of local food providers. It recognizes the need to inhabit and share territories and rejects the privatization of natural elements.
5. Food sovereignty builds knowledge and skills. It builds on traditional knowledge, uses research to support and pass this knowledge to future generations, and rejects technologies that undermine or contaminate local food systems.
6. Food sovereignty works with Nature, optimizing the contributions of ecosystems and improving resilience.

The seventh pillar of food sovereignty emerged from the consultative and participatory ‘People’s Food Policy Project’ in Canada;

7. Food sovereignty understands food as sacred, part of the web of relationships with the natural world that define culture and community.

Food sovereignty is often confused or conflated with other concepts such as food self-sufficiency, or food security. While localization and local control are important principles within food sovereignty, it is not prescriptive of food self-sufficiency as the only pathway to food sovereignty, nor is it diametrically opposed to trade between regions or nations (see Burnett and Murphy, 2014). Food sovereignty also places significant importance on where, how and by whom food is being produced, and the socio-political relations that shape these dynamics at multiple scales, making it distinctly different from food security (Desmarais & Wittman, 2014). Another important aspect of both the concept and the movement is that it originated in the global south, and has been shaped by grassroots voices, largely through the work of La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement that brings together 148 organizations from 69 countries.

Food sovereignty has been promoted by activists and academics alike. It is increasingly invoked in research and policy debates, and has even been implemented in some legislative frameworks, such as in the national constitutions of Ecuador and Nepal (Knuth & Vidar, 2011).

Despite the growing recognition of the value of the concept and the movement, there are some recognized challenges associated with food sovereignty. Many critical food sovereignty scholars have highlighted tensions within food sovereignty theory, such as its vague nature, opposition to industrial technology, and unclear stance on international trade (Agarwal, 2014; Burnett & Murphy, 2014; Edelman et al., 2014; Jansen, 2015). While there are tensions and contradictions within the food sovereignty discourse, these arise in part because food sovereignty is focused on process and a common struggle, and intended to be very context-dependent and locally adaptable (Wittman, 2009). It is in opposition to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality. Along the same vein, food sovereignty is not producer-specific, nor limited in relevance to rural peasants (Schavioni, 2009).

A more recent, and lengthy definition from La Via Campesina’s Nyéléni Declaration written in 2007:

“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritizes local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just income to all peoples and the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage our lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations.” (Via Campesina 2007)

VIDEO - La Via Campesina in Movement...Food Sovereignty Now! In this video, you will hear voices and perspectives of individuals invested in seeing the principles of food sovereignty come to life.

WEB ARTICLE - Don’t Let Food Be the Problem. In Starving for Answers. de Shutter, Olivier (2015). Olivier De Schutter served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008 to 2014. In this article, he describes the emergence of food sovereignty as a grassroots, transnational social movement.

WEB ARTICLE - Perspectives: Food Sovereignty. In this brief interview, author, activist and academic Raj Patel describes how organizing for local change can help improve the health of communities around the world and discusses the connections between food security, food sovereignty and how international food policies shape our food system at home and abroad.

References

• Agarwal, B. (2014). Food sovereignty, food security and democratic choice: critical contradictions, difficult conciliations. Journal of Peasant Studies, (September), 1–22.
• Burnett, K., & Murphy, S. (2014). What place for international trade in food sovereignty? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 1065–1084.
• Desmarais, A. A., & Wittman, H. (2014). Farmers, foodies and First Nations: getting to food sovereignty in Canada. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 1153–1173.
• Edelman, M., Weis, T., Baviskar, A., Borras, S. M., Holt-Giménez, E., Kandiyoti, D., & Wolford, W. (2014). Introduction: critical perspectives on food sovereignty. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 911–931.
• Jansen, K. (2015). The debate on food sovereignty theory: agrarian capitalism, dispossession and agroecology. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 42(1), 213–232.
• Knuth, L., & Vidar, M. (2011). Constitutional and Legal Protection of the Right to Food around the World. Rome.
• Schavioni, C. (2009). The global struggle for food sovereignty: from Nyeleni to New York. Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(3), 682–689.
• Wittman, H. (2009). Interview: Paul Nicholson, La Via Campesina. Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(3), 676–682.

Tutorial Session

In your tutorial session, two groups will be debating an issue from the week’s readings. See course assignment description for session details.