“Fixing” hunger in the 21st century: How food sovereignty might turn agriculture “Right-side Up”

Abstract

Continued reliance on science, technology, and industrialization decoupled food from nature which in turn significantly increased global food insecurity. Two main concepts are used by international NGOs to describe linkages between persistent poverty and hunger: the right to food and food security. The “Right to Food” was conceptualized through the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and updated in 1999 as the right to adequate food. Rights-based approaches rely on States to provide quality food and sufficient quantity ensuring that individual rights are met. However, trade agreements, food aid, structural adjustment policies, and internal conflict are all barriers to implementation. During the 1996 World Food Summit, Via Campesina presented a set of conditions that met goals for food rights by reconfiguring world trade. Its 1996 statement noted food sovereignty as a precondition of food security and the right to food as the tool to achieve it. Discussion of food sovereignty is now increasing to larger and more influential groups such as the FAO and Greens/European Free Alliance. The FAO now includes food sovereignty within discussion of hunger, replacing the term security with sovereignty. Beyond definitions lie policy and implementation, which is where organizations differ. As a concept, food sovereignty channels goals of food security, farmers’ rights and agrarian reform into an agriculture model without legal boundaries. Two case studies show how food sovereignty works in different parts of the world through work of two NGOs, US-based First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) and UBINIG in Bangladesh. Work by each organization fits into a food sovereignty framework and shows different methods for achieving food security at a local level without government or foreign aid. It is hoped that these two interpretations can be useful for future analysis and discussion.