Is 'Food Sovereignty' Relevant in New Zealand?

This is one of the major questions I'm currently pondering in my thesis looking at food sovereignty in New Zealand: Is the term relevant here, and how is it relevant?  It is rarely used here, even among food activists, local food producers and people involved in community food initiatives, but the people who have heard of it, who I have spoken to, resonate with it, and the people who haven't heard of it are interested to find out more.

The term 'food sovereignty' came out of the Via Campensina conferences in 1993 and 1996. Via Campesina are an  international peasant movement representing small farmers, migrant workers and indigenous people who want to have/protect the right to grow food. They were disillusioned with 'food security' (a term that is commonly used here) because the United Nations was working with big corporations like Monsanto to grow many tonnes of genetically modified corn for 'food security'. These big companies tend to push indigenous people off their land, exploit migrant workers and sue small farmers for saving seeds which are contaminated with the corporation's patented DNA. Not food security at all, just mass production.

Via Campesina deliberately constructed 'food sovereignty' to be about people and communities having the access to land to grow food. It is constructed so as to avoid being co-opted by corporations or other large, powerful organisations. It embodies principles of both social and environmental justice, check them out here.

So there is a bunch of academic research on food sovereignty in all sorts of places from disenfranchised indigenous people in South America to the ethnic minorities in the United States, from the anti GE movement in the EU to food struggles Malawi. This is a global movement so it makes sense that it would be relevant in Aotearoa, although there is very little literature. I have come across one publication looking at the term in New Zealand, so far, which focuses on Te Waka Kai Ora, the Maori organics organisation, and there are a bunch of non-academic references including Facebook groups and websites.  The question of privilege arises because some of the academic criticism of food sovereignty complains that the movement glorifies people's empowerment over food rather than addressing the reality that most of the world's rural poor don't have a choice outside of subsistence living.  In 'developed' countries it is more clearly a choice. I want to have a discussion about this, what do you think:

• Is food sovereignty relevant in New Zealand? 
• Do we have a food sovereignty movement?
• What does food sovereignty mean in NZ and what does it look like?
• How is it relevant?
• How do we deal with the uncomfortable issues around privilege? 
• In using the term are we co-opting a peasant movement to suit our relatively privileged ethics?
• We do have real poverty in New Zealand and it often comes with social alienation. How can the food sovereignty movement (if there is one) address this? 

Please join in the discussion by posting a comment below.

Ethics

I recently got ethical approval from the University of Waikato Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee.  The process involved writing quite a long document to demonstrate that I have enough understanding and sensitivity not to endanger anyone in the course of my research.  It gave me many good opportunities to think about my research and clarify my objectives and resolve some childhood issues to boot.  Anyway.  Part of the ethical process I am going to follow is to write a blog post about ethics (this one).

If you want to know more about the ethics of my PhD research you can contact me using the form below or my email (confustulation (at) gmail (dot) com), alternately you can contact my supervisors: Dr Tom Ryan, email: tryan (at) waikato.ac.nz or Dr Kellie McNeill, email: k.mcneill (at) auckland.ac.nz.

For general information about my research you can read my handy-dandy information sheet:


Shared Lunch: An Ethnography of Food Sovereignty in Whaingaroa and Beyond

Researcher: Isa Ritchie

General Information Sheet

I am currently undertaking a PhD in Anthropology looking at food sovereignty in Whaingaroa and wider New Zealand.  I want to look at grass-roots community-based initiatives that are involved in growing food or redistributing food that would otherwise be wasted, and to investigate how these might relate to the global food sovereignty movement.  I want to look at things such as food foraging, sustainable farming, community gardening, land sharing and wwoofing.

My research involves participating, observing and getting involved with community food-based activities.  I will try to actively help out and not just get in the way.  In doing this I hope to get a really good understanding of what’s going on.  I will also interview people who are involved in these activities to find out more about their thoughts and values.  I will then link this with what I am reading about food sovereignty on a global level. I am doing this research because there is not very much academic literature around this topic at the moment, particularly New Zealand based literature and I think it’s an important topic.

No one is paying for this research but I do have a scholarship from the University of Waikato to help me to do it.  The participants involved in this research may just be doing what they were already doing while I participate and observe; they may casually tell me things they want to tell me or they may sit down with me and answer questions for an hour or so.  All of this is voluntary.  Even if you know me outside of this research please feel no obligation to participate.  Participants decide their own level of involvement.  I want people to participate in this research only if they want to do it.

This research will be published as my thesis, copies will be held at the University of Waikato library, by the Anthropology department, and by me.  A digital copy will also be accessible online.  I hope that this research will lead to formal publications and that information about this can be widely disseminated to inspire other communities.  I am also open to co-creating future publications and presentations with participants if they are interested.  I will also present findings in an appropriate form to the Whaingaroa community.

This research project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Any questions about the ethical conduct of this research may be sent to the Secretary of the Committee, email fass-ethics@waikato.ac.nz, postal address, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Te Kura Kete Aronui, University of Waikato, Te Whare Wananga o Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240.