What is food sovereignty?
While peasants’ rights appear far removed from the scenario in south east Queensland, food sovereignty is a foundational concept for many bulk buyer’s groups and alternative food networks, who, as consumers (and producers) wish to exert their right to healthy, culturally appropriate, sustainable and affordable food.
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Food sovereignty has been recognised as a pivotal component of alternative food networks, due to its promotion of ‘citizen-led food systems’, which are fair for all – producers, eaters, animals and the environment. The concept also talks to supporting local farmers with viable livelihoods, allowing them the capacity and resources to maintain ecological custodianship of the land. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2013) supports this broadening of the understanding of a farmer’s role, suggesting they be seen as managers of an agro-ecological system, producing a wide range of goods and services such as water, soil, landscape, energy, biodiversity and recreation.
Further, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2013), the potential of current robust organic practices to sequester carbon into the soil provides a valuable potential mechanism for mitigating runaway climate change. By offering farmers a fair price, bulk buyer’s groups and AFNs can indirectly lead to more ecologically sustainable land management.
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Similarly, the concept of 'seed sovereignty' has become increasingly relevant (see, for example Indian scholar Vandana Shiva), with control of genetic material by GE companies taking away the basic rights to save seeds from the farmers.
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Food sovereignty has been described as giving people “the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and to define their own food and agriculture systems” and has been described as a ‘radical extension’ of ideas surrounding food security. The concept of food sovereignty was originally defined by the international peasants’ rights movement, La Via Campesina, that works to build local food sovereignty by feeding local communities via sustainable farming methods. The term is embraced by food movements around the world and is also being explored by institutions including the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Commissions on Human Rights.