Originally published in OrganicNZ magazine,
By Isa
Ritchie
Food sovereignty was a hot topic along with
concerns over the recent Food Bill (now Food Act 2014), but what does it
actually mean? Over the past four years I have been researching food
sovereignty for my PhD thesis. I didn’t know what it meant when I first
started. I was interested in the free food activities and food activism that
seemed to be springing up more and more. I wanted to look at community
gardening, dumpster-diving, permaculture and alternative economies around food.
During this time I came across food sovereignty literature and got inspired.
La Via Campesina peasant movement
The concept of food sovereignty arose in
1996 from the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, which was formed
in 1993 and represents more than 180 groups of small farmers and migrant
workers around the world – see viacampesina.org.
Via Campesina was disillusioned with the United Nations’ concept of ‘food
security’, which is focused on households having access to adequate food. This
concept favours food policies that maximise food production and access
opportunities, without questioning how, where and by whom food is produced.
The co-option of ‘food security’
The term ‘food security’ has been co-opted
by big corporations. Companies like Monsanto were (and still are) putting
pressure on the United Nations to support their genetically engineered crops in
the name of food security, often at the expense of indigenous people and
small-scale farmers.
‘Food security’ offered no real
possibilities for transforming the existing system, which is socially and
environmentally exploitative. Therefore, Via Campesina called for a new term,
one that could not be co-opted by big corporations because its focus is
strongly connected with communities having power over their own food system.
Healthy food and farming that empowers people
According to the International Planning
Committee for Food Sovereignty:
“Food
sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food
produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to
define their own food and agriculture systems.
It
puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food
systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It
defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation.
It
offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food
regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems
determined by local producers.
Food
sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers
peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led
grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on
environmental, social and economic sustainability.”
– Declaration of Nyéléni, 2007
A radical critique of corporate food
According to a vast and growing body of
research, food sovereignty is a potentially radical and powerful critique of
the corporate food industry. It also focuses on alternative models for
agriculture that are intended to be more environmentally and socially just. The
grass-roots origins of food sovereignty, as well as its inclusive nature, are
two of its greatest strengths.
With its strong focus on caring for people
and the environment, and its obvious similarity with permaculture, agroecology
and indigenous values, it has the ability to connect diverse groups of people
variety of different backgrounds. Organic farming shares these values: the
International Federation of Organic Agriculture (IFOAM, of which Soil &
Health/Organic NZ is a member), is
based on the four principles of health, ecology, fairness and care.
Food sovereignty has also been used as a
platform to influence government policy in several countries including Ecuador,
Venezuela, Mali, Bolivia, Nepal, Senegal and some parts of the United States. It
is intentionally linked directly to democracy and justice by putting the
control of land, water, seeds and natural resources in the hands of the people
who produce food. A core purpose of the food sovereignty campaign is to
redistribute land and the power over food production to enable marginalised
communities to produce their own food.
Food sovereignty in Aotearoa
In my doctoral research, which has been
based in Raglan and a few other parts of New Zealand, I have found that a lot
of small-scale local food producers already hold shared values that reflect
those of the international food sovereignty campaign.
Groups such as Te Waka Kai Ora, the Koanga
Institute, various community gardens, permaculturists and members of Soil &
Health have been working towards similar goals and resisting similar corporate
powers.
We can also learn a lot from how food
activists and organisations in other countries have influenced their
governments to do more to support sustainable food production. In the face of a
global corporate system that works by a process of alienation, the most
powerful thing we can do is practice connectedness.
Isa
Ritchie is a researcher and writer: www.nourishingrevolution.blogspot.co.nz
[SIDEBAR]
The 6 pillars of food sovereignty
1.
Focuses on food for people: The right to
healthy and culturally appropriate food is the basic legal demand underpinning
food sovereignty. Guaranteeing it requires policies that support diversified
food production in each region and country. Food is not simply another
commodity to be traded or speculated on for profit.
2.
Values food providers: Many smallholder
farmers suffer violence, marginalisation and racism from corporate landowners
and governments. People are often pushed off their land by mining concerns or
agribusiness. Agricultural workers can face severe exploitation and even bonded
labour. Although women produce most of the food in the global south, their role
and knowledge are often ignored, and their rights to resources and as workers
are violated. Food sovereignty asserts food providers’ right to live and work
in dignity.
3.
Localises food systems: Food must be
seen primarily as sustenance for the community and only secondarily as
something to be traded. Under food sovereignty, local and regional provision
takes precedence over supplying distant markets, and export-orientated
agriculture is rejected. The ‘free trade’ policies that prevent developing
countries from protecting their own agriculture, for example through subsidies
and tariffs, are also inimical to food sovereignty.
4.
Puts control locally: Food sovereignty
places control over territory, land, grazing, water, seeds, livestock and fish
populations on local food providers and respects their rights. They can use and
share them in socially and environmentally sustainable ways that conserve
diversity. Privatisation of such resources, for example through intellectual
property rights regimes or commercial contracts, is explicitly rejected.
5.
Builds knowledge and skills:
Technologies, such as genetic engineering, that undermine food providers’
ability to develop and pass on knowledge and skills needed for localised food
systems are rejected. Instead, food sovereignty calls for appropriate research
systems to support the development of agricultural knowledge and skills.
6.
Works with nature: Food sovereignty
requires production and distribution systems that protect natural resources and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding energy-intensive industrial methods
that damage the environment and the health of those that inhabit it.
Nyéléni 2007 – Forum for Food Sovereignty,
www.foodsovereignty.org
