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Most of the world's food is still grown, collected and harvested by over 2.5 billion small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers and artisanal fisher folk. This food is primarily sold, processed, resold and consumed locally, with many people deriving their incomes and livelihoods from seed to plate. Such localized food systems provide the foundations of people's nutrition, incomes, economies and culture throughout the world. But despite their current role in and future potential for meeting human needs and sustaining diverse ecologies, local food systems - and the organizations that govern them - are largely ignored, neglected or actively undermined by governments and corporations. Encouraging people to move out of the primary sector and get jobs in the largely urban-based manufacturing and service sectors is seen as both desirable and necessary, regardless of the social and ecological costs. However, regenerating autonomous food systems - with, for and by citizens - is a key challenge in this context. Reclaiming such spaces for autonomy and well-being depends on strengthening the positive features of local food systems and on large-scale citizen action grounded in an alternative theory of social change. This is the historical context that gave birth to the concept of 'food sovereignty'. Food sovereignty is a relatively new political concept, first brought to international attention at the World Food Summit organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1996. Food sovereignty policy framework for food and agriculture is also a citizens' response to the multiple social and environmental crises induced by modern food systems everywhere.
Based on Pimbert, M., 2009. Towards Food Sovereignty. IIED, Gatekeeper no. 141, www.iied.org (November 2009). |
