Food Sovereignty and the Right of Farmers

Definition

Food sovereignty is the right of people 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 the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute, and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. The concept was first framed by the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina at the World Food Summit in 1996.

Introduction

In international organization political panel and documents, the concept of right to food is often present. These last 20 years have seen another concept: food sovereignty, certainly including that of food safety, but focuses attention on every people’s right to own his land and to cultivate and distribute local produce. Food sovereignty has recently found full citizenship in Ecuador’s and Bolivia’s constitutions. Not casually these are two South American...