Food Sovereignty: A Nirvana Concept for Swiss Urban Agriculture?

Abstract

Food sovereignty has become one common banner of urban agriculture initiatives. In the Swiss context, it is a standard reference of community-supported agriculture (CSA), community garden initiatives, local food policies, urban farms or regional labels. In this chapter, we highlight the dual function of food sovereignty in relation to urban agriculture: between “business as usual” and common ground for the negotiation of local agricultural and food policies. After a genealogy of the notion of food sovereignty in Switzerland, at national level, we focus on the cases of Lausanne and Geneva, two regions particularly active in urban agriculture with diverse initiatives stamped food sovereignty.