Food Sovereignty Movements

The concept of food sovereignty was born out of the activism of the global peasants movement La Via Campesina. Since its inception food sovereignty has traveled far beyond its origins, and this entry looks at those origins and its current use by social movements. The most recent and widely accepted definition of food sovereignty is from the 2007 Nyéléni Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali organized by La Via Campesina: “[It is] the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural 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 corporation.”