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The Origins & Potentialof Food Sovereignty
Hannah Wittman, Annette Desmarais & Nettie Wiebe
T
he global food crisis of 2007–08, marked by skyrockeing food prices, urbanfood rios and he coninued displacemen of he rural poor, was a clear indica-ion ha he dominan model of agriculural developmen has no succeeded ineradicaing povery or world hunger. In desperaion, in Haii, Bangladesh, Egyp, Wes and Cenral Africa and counless oher locaions, hundreds of housands of people ook o he srees demanding aordable food. Behind hese highly visibleevens lurks he very real and ongoing human suering caused by he lack of hakey necessiy for all human life — food. e suned growh and high moraliy raes of hungry children and he ill healh and los poenial of malnourished adulsare clear and ragic resuls of he chronic food shorages suered by an increasingnumber of people. A growing number of households and communiies fear foromorrow’s meals, even hough here may be enough food for oday. And even forhose of us whose cupboards are well socked and who have adequae incomes opay our grocery bills, here are grounds for unease abou he conen, safey andorigins of our food and he long-erm susainabiliy of our food sysem. Hence, hesecuriy, cos, safey and nuriion of food and he fuure of food producion iself are everyone’s concern. While he sudden spike in prices sparked he headlines dur-ing he 2007–2008 food crisis, he problems in he global food sysem are complex and deep-seaed. e food sysem’s vulnerabiliies, from climae change o loss of biodiversiy o securiy of supplies, are becoming more apparen. e global foodcrisis is deepening. Wha are he possible soluions o his crisis?Some proponens of neoliberal globalizaion would have us believe ha hecrisis is he resul of shorages and marke failures. ey assure us ha he bes way o keep up wih a growing populaion is o preven naional governmens from in-ervening in he marke, focus on scienic high-ech approaches, increase produc-ion wih he adopion of geneically modied seeds (
gmo
s) and furher liberalizeagriculure and food. Bu despie having powerful advocaes and enforcers, suchas he World Bank, he Inernaional Moneary Fund (
imf
) and he World TradeOrganizaion (
wto
) on side, hese soluions reveal a specacular failure when icomes o reducing povery and eradicaing hunger. e mos recen gures fromhe Food and Agriculure Organizaion (
fao
) of he Unied Naions indicaeha he ranks of he hungry are coninuing o swell and now encompass more
2 Food Sovereignty
han one billion people, an increase of over 25 percen in he number of people wihou enough food since he mid 1990s (
fao
1999, 2009), when he neoliberaldevelopmen projec was in a phase of full implemenaion.As an alernaive o he neoliberal model, peasans, small-scale farmers, farm workers and indigenous communiies organized in he ransnaional agrarianmovemen La Vía Campesina (2008a) argue ha he curren, and linked, food,economic and environmenal crises are in fac he direc resul of decades of de-srucive economic policies based on he globalizaion of a neoliberal, indusrial,capial-inensive and corporae-led model of agriculure. La Vía Campesina, formedin 1993 and now represening 148 organizaions from sixy-nine counries, has become one of he sronges voices of radical opposiion o he globalizaion of an indusrial and neoliberal model of agriculure, claiming ha “he ime for foodsovereigny has come.”Peasan movemens, urban-based social movemens, non-governmenalorganizaions (
ngo
s) and indigenous peoples have been insrumenal in putingfood sovereigny on he agenda, and consequenly, hey have succeeded in shiinghe erms of he debae around food, agriculure and rural developmen a he lo-cal, naional and inernaional levels. Because food sovereigny aims o ransformdominan forces, including hose relaed o poliics, economics, gender, he envi-ronmen and social organizaion, here will, no doub, be a long and hard sruggleo see food sovereigny become he sandard model for food producion and ruraldevelopmen. is book conribues o his sruggle by engaging in a conversaionha idenies and expands he meanings, undersandings and implicaions of foodsovereigny in an inernaional conex.
Initiating the Food Sovereignty Concept
Food sovereigny as a concep evolved from he experience of, and criical analysis by, farming peoples, hose mos immediaely aeced by changes in naional andinernaional agriculural policy inroduced hroughou he 1980s and early 1990s.e resuls of he inclusion of agriculure in he General Agreemen on Taris andTrade (
ga
) negoiaions, ariculaed in he
wto
, brough ino sharp relief com-muniies’ widespread loss of conrol over food markes, environmens, land andrural culures. e erm “food sovereigny” was coined o recognize he poliicaland economic power dimension inheren in he food and agriculure debae ando ake a pro-acive sance by naming i. Food sovereigny, broadly dened as herigh of naions and peoples o conrol heir own food sysems, including heirown markes, producion modes, food culures and environmens, has emergedas a criical alernaive o he dominan neoliberal model for agriculure and rade.La Vía Campesina (1996a) rs discussed food sovereigny a is SecondInernaional Conference, held on April 18–21, 1996, in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Peasanand farm leaders who gahered here no longer saw poenial in he concep of “foodsecuriy” o ensure local access o culurally appropriae and nuriious food. In
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Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community
An excerpt of Fernwood's Fall 2010 book Food Sovereignty.
Advocating a practical, radical change to the way much of our food system currently operates, this book argues that food sovereignty is the means to achieving a… (More)
Advocating a practical, radical change to the way much of our food system currently operates, this book argues that food sovereignty is the means to achieving a… (More)
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