Food sovereignty — aka freedom from corporate control of food production, food systems, and agriculture, at all levels, from personal, to local, regional, national, and international — means:
- Communities having the power to determine, and implement, the food and agriculture systems that best advance the health and well-being of all people. The principle of food sovereignty recognizes that “health and well-being” includes the environment, both natural and built; livelihoods and the economy; shelter and security; food distribution and nutrition; and spiritual and social lives.
- Food sovereignty is not anti-technological, anti-science, or anti-plant or animal- breeding. It is about who controls and benefits from decisions, policies, markets, and practices in and of food systems. Maintaining, recapturing, and expanding bio diversity, local adaptation, and sustainability for the benefit of consumers, producers, and the environment are key. Diversity and decentralization/de-consolidation of food production systems is also essential. Small and large are both needed, as are research and development.
- Tradeoffs and balances are negotiated, made, and reset through inclusive, democratic, processes involving wide communities of producers, consumers, and suppliers.
- Food sovereignty “puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute, and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies, rather than the demands of markets and corporations” (Declaration of Nyeleni, 2007)
- Food sovereignty can be supported through changes in funding, agricultural support programs, and financing priorities. (see notes below, of reflections on UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27)
Read more from international and US groups and movements working on food sovereignty
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
National Family Farm Coalition
From NFFC: We envision a healthy and regenerative food, farming and fishing system that embodies the principles of food sovereignty through:
- Vibrant rural communities in which everyone lives with dignity and can easily access local food
- Fair prices and living wages for all food producers and providers
- Democratic, community-based control of and responsibility for ecological resources and practices
- Social, racial, cultural, and economic diversity
What you can do right now
Be part of independent local food systems wherever you are, however you can.
- Shop in local markets, farmer’s markets, smaller chains.
- Join CSA’s: Local producers offering community supported agriculture programs to supply fresh local products directly to the consumer.
- Promote school gardens and nutrition programs.
- Support food justice work to increase access to healthy food, and access to local/regional products.
- Pay attention to US Farm Bill and policies; know how US taxpayer $$ subsidizes agribusiness and disadvantages family farms; take action (see National Family Farm Coalition)
If you travel outside the US
Buy from street vendors, go to local cafes and restaurants, buy food and supplies at local shops. Even if they sell imported goods, it is important to keep local scale and neighborhood markets alive.
Go to street markets, seek out and buy products from small producers. Whenever possible, support local, regional, and national production systems.
Community development goals and strategies come from communities themselves
Community development — including rural or ag production development — is not something delivered as a packages of techniques or technologies from the outside. Whether you call it bottom up, grass roots, grass tops, participatory, it entails collaborative processes to:
- Identify resources and strengths in the community
- Specify and set priorities for immediate and longer term goals
- Identify obstacles or barriers to achieving goals
- Strategizing and taking action
- Evaluate, evolve, educate, sustain and grow
FINANCE and FUNDING: Comments from UN Climate Change Conference 2022
The industrial food sector pitches itself as the only way to feed a growing population. Yet small farmers (with less than two hectares) produce over a third of the world’s food – despite having access to only 12% of agricultural land. Much of the world’s population is either undernourished or overweight, suggesting that we are not producing or eating well.
Still, the momentum and the money seem to be skewed in favor of industrial agriculture, allowing it to continue to grow and emit. Almost 90% of the $540bn in global food subsidies, which play a big role in deciding what food is produced and what we eat, have been deemed “harmful” to the planet – by damaging health, the climate and nature as well as excluding smallholder farmers.
“Subsidies are a major change agent. They make it hard for farmers to make changes, and stop consumer-driven market changes from naturally taking place. This is not a level playing field,” said Stephanie Haszczyn from the Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (Fairr) initiative.
Lower-impact forms of farming often receive little to no subsidy assistance. Proponents like La Via Campesina argue that agroecology – a form of farming steeped in Indigenous and ancestral knowledge that works with nature and local conditions to produce food sustainably, protecting biodiversity and soil quality – offers a viable greener, healthier and fairer alternative to big ag.
But neither subsidies nor agroecology were on the agenda at Cop27. “It was very disturbing to see a large contingent of corporate lobbyists influencing the process while small-scale farmers have been shut out and drowned out,” said Million Belay, an Ipes-Food expert and general coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, a large grassroots movement. “Farmers demanded recognition for diverse, resilient farming, agroecology and climate finance, but they left with very little.”
Food Sovereignty over Food Security
Comments from women leaders from the global south, at COP 27
Uprooted 