Food sovereignty
A Growing Culture describes food sovereignty in their organization's vision, as the following: "Healthy, accessible, and culturally appropriate food is a human right. Living wages, living environments, living traditions are human rights. Dignity. Diversity. Culture. All human rights. These are the bedrock of the food sovereignty movement."
La Via Campesina definition of food sovereignty focuses on the rights of farmers/consumers and local communities to determine their food systems and control the resources needed to produce (like land, water and seeds). [1] The definition is based on 6 pillars: valuing food providers; localizing food systems; making decisions locally; building knowledge and skills; working with nature. Indigenous peoples added a seventh pillar, which is that food is sacred. [2]
Within food sovereignty are the concepts of “agroecology” and “food democracy”. Agroecology means practicing agriculture in harmony with the environment and the community. Food democracy refers to the inclusion of public and local participation in food sovereignty projects. [3]
The knowledge included in the next sections comes from:
Food sovereignty is a climate justice issue
Global agriculture is shaped by “neoliberalism”. The economic system of neoliberalism refers to low governmental control on industries (like agriculture), tax cuts, reduction of public spending and inclusion in the international system. A consequence of this is that farmers and consumers have fewer options over what is produced, how it produced. [4]
Current agriculture under neoliberalism damages the environment and creates about 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions. It pushes for a monoculture-farming model that results in a loss of biodiversity. In other words, the current food system only centers around a few crops instead of using all of the food diversity on this planet. The negative impacts of the global food system tend to impact more directly countries hit the hardest by injustices and the climate crisis. [5]
Also, current agriculture adds to the already-existing exploitation. A lot of farm workers are working in difficult conditions, and the land they are using is tired. It is this mix of bad working conditions and abuse of lands that drives the food sovereignty movement. [6]
Over the past centuries, Indigenous traditional food systems have been almost erased through government policies. An example of this is how the Canadian and American governments put in place projects to assimilate and disrupt their traditional ways of life. [7] On top of this, climate change impacts Indigenous food systems. The decline of sea ice in the Arctic and the change in plant and animal populations are part of these impacts.
Further resources
- A Growing Culture offers several written and visual resources related to food justice and sovereignty. See https://www.agrowingculture.org/ for more.
If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.
- ↑ Desmarais, A. A., Claeys, P., & Trauger, A. (Eds.). (2017). Public policies for food sovereignty : social movements and the state (Ser. Routledge studies in food, society and the environment). Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
- ↑ Desmarais, A. A., Claeys, P., & Trauger, A. (Eds.). (2017). Public policies for food sovereignty : social movements and the state (Ser. Routledge studies in food, society and the environment). Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
- ↑ https://www.nfu.ca/campaigns/agroecology/
- ↑ Andrée Peter, Ayres, J. M. K., Bosia, M. J., & Mássicotte Marie-Josée (Eds.). (2014). Globalization and food sovereignty : global and local change in the new politics of food (Ser. Studies in comparative political economy and public policy, 42). University of Toronto Press.
- ↑ Climate False Solutions. (2021). Hoodwinked in the hothouse: Resist false solutions to climate change. https://moodle.ubishops.ca/pluginfile.php/285048/mod_resource/content/1/HOODWINKED_ThirdEdition_On-Screen_version.pdf
- ↑ Eliason, A. (2021, December 21). Building local food pathways: Fodd sovereignty and climate justice Law & Political Economy. https://lpeproject.org/
- ↑ LaDuke, W. Hoover, E. (2019). Indigenous food sovereignty in the united states : restoring cultural knowledge, protecting environments, and regaining health. (D. A. Mihesuah & E. Hoover, Eds.) (Ser. New directions in native american studies, volume 18). University of Oklahoma Press.