Food Sovereignty: An Introduction

The 2007 World Summit on Food Sovereignty has come to an end. Of the many good things at the conference’s website is one of the best definitions of Food Sovereignty. Here are the edited highlights from the Declaration, to which 500 representatives from over 80 countries signed their names:

We are fighting for a world where…

  • …all peoples, nations and states are able to determine their own food producing systems and policies that provide every one of us with good quality, adequate, affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate food;
  • …recognition and respect of women’s roles and rights in food production, and representation of women in all decision making bodies;
  • …all peoples in each of our countries are able to live with dignity, earn a living wage for their labour and have the opportunity to remain in their homes;
  • …where we share our lands and territories peacefully and fairly among our peoples, be we peasants, indigenous peoples, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, or others;
  • …where peoples’ power to make decisions about their material, natural and spiritual heritage are defended;

What are we fighting against?

  • The domination of our food and food producing systems by corporations that place profits before people, health and the environment;
  • Technologies and practices that undercut our future food producing capacities, damage the environment and put our health at risk. Those include transgenic crops and animals, terminator technology, industrial aquaculture and destructive fishing practices, the so-called white revolution of industrial dairy practices, the so-called ‘old’ and ‘new’ Green Revolutions, and the “Green Deserts” of industrial bio-fuel monocultures and other plantations;
  • Development projects/models and extractive industry that displace people and destroy our environments and natural heritage;
  • The criminalization of all those who struggle to protect and defend our rights;
  • Food aid that disguises dumping, introduces GMOs into local environments and food systems and creates new colonialism patterns;

What’s not to like? Find out more about food sovereignty here.

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