2024 APRIL ISSUE
FOOD JUSTICE & FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
THE MOVEMENTS TO
TAKE BACK POWER IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
By CAROLINE KOPAS
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From the Desk of the Publisher
This is a very serious piece, and like all pieces as written by Caroline, they are calling for our attention and bringing us into deep thoughts. This piece is no exception.
I haven’t heard about food injustice previously. Or perhaps I have never paid any attention, although I have noticed inequalities in many aspects. But to make the food accessible, Caroline told us that we have to consider food justice and food sovereignty most seriously. Health food is more for developed economies and inaccessible to those labor workers who are growing the food. This is already so unfair if we look at it closely.
Food sovereignty is definitely helping the people in allocating the supply and the efforts that are required to make this function. We heard for the first time that the Food Sovereignty Movement is tied with the movement against Climate Change. It is applying new system to deal with sustainability and equality. Checking for the Fairtrade Certified labels from the food we buy and addressing insecurity in our own community by donating to food banks are the rights things for us to do.
Everyone eats food. It’s an integral part of being human and often serves as a unifying agent, binding people from all walks of life together. However, the global food system is deeply rooted in problematic histories and inequalities. Power, above all else, determines food’s accessibility and availability, especially concerning those of nutritious food. Various researchers have contended that food insecurity and other hunger is primarily a result globally of neoliberal globalization and colonialism, and domestically, unequal policy-making and social hierarchy. In order to combat these deep-seated imbalances, two significant movements have arisen: food justice and food sovereignty.
Food justice hinges on the assertion that equitable access to healthy food is a human right. It recognizes how people of color, people of low socio-economic status, and people who live in rural areas are disproportionally affected by hunger and food insecurity and seeks to rework these structural barriers. Food justice is closely tied with the concepts of environmental justice and culinary justice, both of which emerged as grassroots eco-activist movements in the second half of the twentieth century. They seek to put the people on the front lines of environmental and social issues primarily in control of how they are addressed.
The current food system, particularly in the United States, was mostly built by powerful, land-owning white men often through the subjugation of Native Americans, migrant farmworkers, and enslaved Africans, among others. The capitalist focus on commercial agriculture rather than subsistence agriculture commodities and makes inaccessible to many the food that sustains life. Globalization and technological advancement has created a noticeable disconnect between the food people eat and where the food is grown—a lot of the time, hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Knowledge of how the current system operates, and how it was created, is imperative in recognizing the systemic underpinnings and food insecurity, undernourishment, and hunger in today’s world, which builds a foundation for working toward systemic change.
Food justice addresses a myriad of issues, such as food desserts, obesity, unsustainable agricultural practices, pollution, and accessibility of land ownership. Food justice advocates persist in the tradition of their food justice ancestors, such as Cesar Chávez, Fannie Lou Hamer, Winona LaDuke, and Vandana Shiva.
Food sovereignty is a movement that operates on a greater scale than food justice. It is often regarded and used as often a policy of governing groups in order to take back agency and control in the food system. Food sovereignty has long been a goal of Native American Nations and many countries in the global south. Food sovereignty is a system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also have control over its production and distribution. This is the opposite of a food regime, in which corporations and other economic institutions and markets control the global food system. Many nations view food sovereignty as essential in decreasing dependence and becoming more self-sustainable and resilient against market fluctuations.
A newer movement, the creation of food sovereignty is credited to La Via Campesina (translated from Spanish to “The Peasant Way”), an international coalition of farmers, at the 1996 World Food Summit. At the 2007 Nyéléni Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali, six pillars of food sovereignty were created and defined as follows: Food Sovereignty… (1) Focuses on Food for People, (2) Values Food Providers, (3) Localizes Food Systems, (4) Puts Control Locally, (5) Build Knowledge and Skills, and (6) Works with Nature.
The Food Sovereignty Movement has become tied with the movement against Climate Change. Considering the fact that over half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are produced from the food system, it is not surprising. Locally sourced and sustainably grown food is good for both people and the environment, and food sovereignty is a tool to get there.
Both the Food Justice and Food Sovereignty movements are actively working at dismantling inequitable food systems in favor of a new system that is sustainable, equal, and reflective of the modern world. Education and awareness is an important first step in helping these movements obtain their goals. To go further, consider buying locally, and checking for Fairtrade Certified labels. You can address food insecurity in your community by donating to food banks, and by supporting free meal and community garden programs. Most significantly, listen to disenfranchised voices when it comes to the topic. If the message comes from the top of the system, it’s not part of the movement.
For such an integral part of life, food justice and its related movements are undervalued as social and political issues. It’s time for that to change.