Food sovereignty

Last updated
Produce from a garden in Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota in 2019. Keya Wakpala Garden's, Mission, SD 2019 (49721534596).jpg
Produce from a garden in Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota in 2019.

Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which corporations and market institutions control the global food system. Food sovereignty emphasizes local food economies, sustainable food availability, and centers culturally appropriate foods and practices. [1] Changing climates and disrupted foodways disproportionately impact indigenous populations and their access to traditional food sources while contributing to higher rates of certain diseases; for this reason, food sovereignty centers indigenous peoples. These needs have been addressed in recent years by several international organizations, including the United Nations, with several countries adopting food sovereignty policies into law. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Critics of food sovereignty activism believe that the system is founded on inaccurate baseline assumptions; disregards the origins of the targeted problems; and is plagued by a lack of consensus for proposed solutions.

Contents

Definition

The term "food sovereignty" was first coined in 1996 by members of Via Campesina, an international farmers' organisation, and later adopted by several international organisations, including the World Bank and United Nations. In 2007, the "Declaration of Nyéléni" provided a definition which was adopted by 80 countries; in 2011 it was further refined by countries in Europe. As of 2020, at least seven countries had integrated food sovereignty into their constitutions and laws. [7]

History

Aligned somewhat with the tenets of the Slow Food organization, the history of food sovereignty as a movement is relatively young. However, the movement is gaining traction as more countries take significant steps towards implementing food systems that address inequities. [8]

Global gatherings

At the 2007 Forum for Food Sovereignty in Sélingué, Mali, 500 delegates from more than 80 countries adopted the "Declaration of Nyéléni", [9] which says in part:

Food sovereignty 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 agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. [9]

In April 2008 the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), an intergovernmental panel under the sponsorship of the United Nations and the World Bank, adopted the following definition: "Food sovereignty is defined as the right of peoples and sovereign states to democratically determine their own agricultural and food policies." [10]

Government food sovereignty policy

Issues of food production, distribution and access are seldom apolitical or without criticism. For example, the adoption of the Green Revolution in countries across the globe has increased world food production but has not "solved" the problem of world hunger. Food sovereignty advocates argue this is because the movement did not address access to land or distribution of economic power. Others argue that food sovereignty is based on incorrect baseline assumptions around the role of subsistence farming in government policy. Agrarian aspects of food sovereignty put the movement in conflict with globalisation, industrialisation, and urbanisation trends. [11]

After Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, a new constitution was approved by the people of Venezuela which included the right to food as one of its basic civil rights. The government set up missions to deliver the various constitutional rights. Several missions related to food and farming were established by Chávez' government to provide equitable food access. Among these were the Misión Alimentación, Misión Vuelvan Caras, Misión Mercal and Misión Zamora. Later the Gran Misión AgroVenezuela was created to increase domestic agricultural production. Among the strategies used to increase food sovereignty for Venezuelans were land reform, agroecology, use of traditional crops and biological pest control and the establishment of subsidised food outlets such as Arepera Socialista, Café Venezuela and Cacao Venezuela. [12]

In September 2008, Ecuador enshrined food sovereignty in its constitution. As of late 2008, a law is in the draft stages that is expected to expand upon this constitutional provision by banning genetically modified organisms, protecting many areas of the country from extraction of non-renewable resources, and to discourage monoculture. The law as drafted will also protect biodiversity as collective intellectual property and recognize the Rights of Nature. [13]

Since then Mali, Bolivia, Nepal, Senegal and Egypt (2014 Constitution) have integrated food sovereignty into their national constitutions or laws. [7]

Indigenous food sovereignty

Global Issues

Climate

Climate change is impacting the food security of indigenous communities as well, including Pacific Islanders and those in the Circumpolar North, due to rising sea levels or erosion. [14]

Cuisine

Activists claim that native food sovereignty is also appropriated as a cuisine for mainstream dining because indigenous foods are framed to be culturally authentic, desired by those outside of these communities. Ingredients that are cultural staples, which are harder for these populations to find, are displaced due to a greater demand for access outside of indigenous populations. [15]

Indigenous food sovereignty in the United States

Native Americans have been directly impacted in their ability to acquire and prepare their food and this disruption of traditional diets has resulted in health problems, including diabetes and heart disease. [16] Indigenous food sovereignty activists in the United States assert that the systematic displacement of indigenous communities has led to mass food insecurity. Activist groups advocate for revitalization of traditional practices, development of local food economies, the right to food, and seed sovereignty. [17]

Indigenous people's food sovereignty and food security are closely related to their geographical location. Traditional indigenous foodways in the United States are tied to the ancestral homelands of Native American populations, especially for those with strong subsistence traditions. For instance, it is taught among the Muckleshoot that “the land that provides the foods and medicines we need are a part of who we are." [18] [16]

This image was taken from at the USDA Native American Heritage Month Observance event on Nov. 16, 2023. There were bags of white tepary beans (s-totoah bavi) from Romona Farms American Indian Foods were placed under each participants chairs to promote food sovereignty. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Native American Heritage Month observance event in Washington, D.C. on November 16, 2023 - 4.jpg
This image was taken from at the USDA Native American Heritage Month Observance event on Nov. 16, 2023. There were bags of white tepary beans (s-totoah bavī) from Romona Farms American Indian Foods were placed under each participants chairs to promote food sovereignty.

The disruption of traditional foodways is described to be tied to the disruption of the connection between traditional Native land and their people, a change Rachel V. Vernon describes as being tied to “racism, colonialism, and the loss of autonomy and power.” [19] Pre-colonial lands were expansive and thriving with traditional foods. Because of disease and war, Native peoples in the early 20th century were directly impacted in their ability to acquire and prepare their food. In addition to this, relocation away from ancestral lands further limited traditional foodways. Many indigenous people in the United States now live in food deserts. Due to inadequate or inhibited access to food, indigenous peoples suffer disproportionately from food insecurity compared to the rest of the US population. [18] At reservations, the “‘highly processed, high sugar, high fat, and processed foods,’” further contributed to health issues in Native populations, leading to indigenous peoples in the United States having the highest rates of diabetes and heart disease in the nation. [20] In addition to this, a majority of Native peoples also live off-reservation, and so are even further removed from traditional foodways. [21]

Because Native American nations are sovereign from the United States, they receive little help in rehabilitating traditional foodways. As defined by the National Congress of American Indians, tribal sovereignty ensures that any decisions about the tribes with regard to their property and citizens are made with their participation and consent. [22] The United States federal government recognizes Native American tribes as separate governments, opposed to “special interest groups, individuals, or ... other type of non-governmental entity.” [23]

History

Three sisters: maize, beans, and squash planted together. Three Sisters 4.jpg
Three sisters: maize, beans, and squash planted together.

Prior to the colonization of the Americas, Native Americans had a diverse diet and food culture, procuring food in various ways across tribes. Depending on the region, Indigenous people sourced their food by hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming. Native food pathways revolved around the “three sisters,” or corn, beans, and squash, as staples in their diet. Hunting, gathering, and fishing were the primary means of collecting food.

These balanced ecosystems were disrupted by European settler colonialism following Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America in 1492. Upon European arrival, the Indigenous peoples of America were stripped of their supplies and even starved out as a tactic for colonial control over Native lands. Domesticated animals were introduced into America by European settlers, bringing with them new diseases. [24] Colonizers targeted food stores specifically and drastically changed Native American diets, their ability to acquire resources, and produce food. [25]

New food systems put in place by American settlers, have over time forced a dependency upon processed and mass-produced food on Indian reservations and indigenous communities at large. Native tribes have been forced into a position of food insecurity and put in a place in society where there is no ability to afford other sources of healthy or food that is organically farmed. [24] With a loss of food sovereignty, there was also a loss of land, as Indians were relocated and forcibly assimilated. Following Congress' passing of the Indian Appropriations Act in 1851, all Indigenous people were forced onto Indian reservations, losing the ability to cultivate the earth and rely on traditional means of living.

Activism

Native Americans today fight for food sovereignty as a means to address health, returning to culturally traditional foods for healing. Returning to traditional eating is challenging, considering an extensive history of relocation and cultural genocide. Many Native American histories of traditional culture foods have been lost or are now difficult to recreate. [26]

Research assistant Kyle Kootswaytewa inspecting a corn crop in Santa Fe, NM. Directly connecting and caring for land/seeds in an important aspect of food sovereignty. Conservation of indigenous food cultivation.jpg
Research assistant Kyle Kootswaytewa inspecting a corn crop in Santa Fe, NM. Directly connecting and caring for land/seeds in an important aspect of food sovereignty.

Indigenous food sovereignty activists in the United States assert that indigenous communities have been systematically displaced from their traditional foodways, which has led to mass food insecurity. [17] It is argued that the most effective way to achieve food security for indigenous groups is to increase their agency in food production. [27] Some activists also argue for food sovereignty as a means of healing historical trauma and as a means of decolonizing their communities. In the United States the Indigenous Food Systems Network and the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance work towards education and policy-making concerned with food and farming security. Another group focused on requiring food and energy sovereignty is the White Earth Anishnaabeg from Minnesota, who focus on a variety of foods, planting and harvesting them using traditional methods, a form of decolonization. [28] Such groups meet to establish policies for food sovereignty and to develop their local food economies at summits such as the Diné Bich’iiya’ Summit in Tsaile, Arizona, which focused on Navajo traditional foods. [29]

Indigenous food sovereignty activists also often advocate for seed sovereignty, and more generally for plant breeders’ rights. Seed saving is important to indigenous communities in the United States because it provides those communities with a stable food source and holds cultural importance. [30] In addition, seed sovereignty advocates often argue that seed saving is an important mechanism in creating agricultural systems that can adapt to climate change. [31]

Food sovereignty research and projects

In 2021, a comprehensive literature review of IFS (Indigenous Food Sovereignty) and the effectiveness of food sovereignty principles concluded that Indigenous people in the United States and Canada have higher rates of obesity, food insecurity, and Type 2 diabetes than the general population. [32]

Government projects supporting indigenous food systems are new attempts to uplift indigenous communities and are in amateur stages of development. Other countries adopted Indigenous food programs years before the U.S., including Canada. The Canadian Food Guide (CFG) was created in January 2019 as a means to include multicultural diets, instead of basing food standards on one or few cultures — the guide includes Indigenous diets and involved Indigenous populations in consultation. [33]

A community member harvesting from a one-acre self-sustaining farm on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. Keya Wakpala Garden, Mission SD 3.jpg
A community member harvesting from a one-acre self-sustaining farm on an Indian reservation in South Dakota.

In 2021, the United States' Department of Agriculture launched the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative. This initiative is designed to "promote traditional food ways" as, similar to Canada, USDA programs have not historically encompassed Indigenous food pathways and diets. [34] The USDA has partnered with organizations already serving Indigenous tribes: The Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, Linda Black Elk & Lisa Iron Cloud, InterTribal Buffalo Council, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, Intertribal Agriculture Council, and the University of Arkansas - Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative.

Non-governmental projects, such as the “Good Life” project in Ecuador, are spearheaded by independent organizations and Indigenous community members. The "Good Life" suggests that there are alternative methods of action through Indigenous community development that do not involve governmental funding or state provisioning. In Ecuador, the Indigenous community has developed the “Good Life” project which drifts away from capitalist and western understandings of what a community needs, and rather focuses on cultivating community success through harmony with the people, nature, and defending their land — essentially working directly within an Indigenous community to reclaim food sovereignty. [35]

Organizations in the United States have adopted similar models to Ecuador's "Good Life" project. In California, the UC Berkeley organization, CARES (the Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability) works with the PPN (Pinoleville Pomo Nation) in Ukiah, California, to support their tribal sovereignty. This Indigenous community has been working with CARES over the years to design sustainable housing and energy that reflect its culture. [36]

Narragansett people exercised their own food sovereignty initiative by reappropriating landscapes, seascapes, estuaries, spaces, and built places from a Rhode Island "Farm", [37] which had, in earnest after 1690, sustained southern New England proprietorship, land banks, and currency within a Greater Caribbean plantation complex. This carrying trade became a potential leg of the Triangular trade, although historians also argue that the self-contained carrying trade belied the triangle as a sequential circuit. By 1769, the woodlands and wetlands of the Narragansett tribal reserve near Charlestown, Rhode Island, had been reduced to less than five square miles, with multivalent consequences for resource allocation, survivance, religiosity, and race. Census and missionary records appraised the reserve population at approximately 600 tribal members, on the eve of Narragansett tribal veterans' return from the Seven Years' War. [38] But these same records did not address the seasonal fishing exodus and indicated that, for example, the Narragansett "have for ages been intermixing with Whites and Blacks...a number of others, of mixed nations, live among them, who, by their customs, are not of the tribe." One missionary later observed that less than a third of the reserve was available for tillage and sustenance, with the remainder devoted to tenancy and the maintenance of woodlands for timber (sales, etc.). [39]

Previous debts to "Farmers", especially for gunpowder during hunting sojourns and for compensating "seasoned slaves" in assistance with fishing canoe transportation, had resulted in a mid-eighteenth-century emphasis on horticulture and agriculture, with limited animal husbandry. Historian Daniel Mandell argues that, compared to Eastern Woodland Algonquian communities in similar circumstances, "the Narragansetts had even less: in 1810, the tribe told [congregational missionary Curtis] Coe that they had no oxen to plow their fields or haul manure and held only about four cows; he had already noted that families on the reserve generally farmed only about an acre." [40] Despite the antebellum rise of "Greater Northeast" industrial agriculture, [41] the southern New England "Farms" and the carrying trade [42] in Caribbean sugar, molasses, rice, coffee, indigo, mahogany, and pre-1740 "seasoned slaves", [43] began to dissipate by the Election of 1800 [44] and largely collapsed into agrarian ruins by the War of 1812. [45]

The expansion of the Narragansett tribal project garnered media coverage and incited scholars to reevaluate a diminished focus on, or complete absence of, such "Farms", their proprietors, their multipurpose Pacers, seaport carriers, land banks, and Narragansett foodways in extant studies on Eastern Woodland Algonquian communities by both historians and anthropologists. [46]

Seed sovereignty

Seed sovereignty can be defined as the right “to breed and exchange diverse open-sourced seeds." [47] It is closely connected to food sovereignty, as seed sovereignty activists argue for the practice of seed saving partly as a means of increasing food security. [48] These activists argue that seed saving allows for a closed food system that can help communities gain independence from major agricultural companies. [17] Seed sovereignty is distinct from food sovereignty in its emphasis on seed saving specifically, rather than food systems in their entirety. Seed sovereignty activists often argue for seed saving based on environmental reasoning, not just food justice ones. [30] They argue that seed saving fills an important role of restoring biodiversity to agriculture, and producing plant varieties that are more resilient to change climatic conditions in light of climate change. [31]

Food sovereignty versus food security

Food sovereignty

Movements to reclaim sovereignty over food have existed around the world for centuries; however, the concept of "food sovereignty" itself emerged in 1996. [49] Food sovereignty was initially defined by "small-scale producers [who] organized as the transnational social movement La Vía Campesina (LVC), and was launched globally at the 1996 United Nations World Food Summit." [50] It is a concept that explains how the industrialization of food pathways has decreased one's freedom to choose one's own food source. [51] "Food sovereignty movements work hard to increase local community control of the production, processing, and distribution of food, as this is seen as a necessary condition for liberating communities from oppression," [52] which has transformed food movements toward building more overall security.

In fall 2003, Peter Rosset argues in Food First's Backgrounder that "food sovereignty goes beyond the concept of food security... [Food security] means that... [everyone] must have the certainty of having enough to eat each day[,] ... but says nothing about where that food comes from or how it is produced." [53] Food sovereignty includes support for smallholders and for collectively owned farms, fisheries, etc., rather than industrializing these sectors in a minimally regulated global economy. In another publication, Food First describes "food sovereignty" as "a platform for rural revitalization at a global level based on equitable distribution of farmland and water, farmer control over seeds, and productive small-scale farms supplying consumers with healthy, locally grown food." [53]

Food Security

In the 90’s the Food and Agriculture Organization defined food security as “all people, at all times, hav[ing] physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." [54] Despite the fact that food security has become more widely understood in the US as availability and access to nutritious foods all the time, this definition is not universally applicable. For instance, in the European Union, "the official food insecurity indicator includes the unaffordability of ‘a meal with meat, chicken or fish every second day'" [55] This definition differs greatly from food insecurity measurements of the US for instance. The existence of contradicting markers of food insecurity happening globally reflects different research and interpretations of that research. [56]

Food security, emphasises access to adequate nutrition for all, which may be provided by food from one's own country or from global imports. In the name of efficiency and enhanced productivity, it has therefore served to promote what has been termed the "corporate food regime": [57] large-scale, industrialised corporate farming based on specialized production, land concentration and trade liberalisation. Critics of the food security movement claim that its inattention to the political economy of the corporate food regime blinds it to the adverse effects of that regime, notably the widespread dispossession of small producers and global ecological degradation. [58]

Criticisms of the Green Revolution

The Green Revolution, which refers to developments in plant breeding between the 1960s and 1980s that improved yields from major cereal crops, is upheld by some proponents of food security as a success story in increasing crop yields and combating world hunger. The policy focused primarily in research, development and transfer of agricultural technology, such as hybrid seeds and fertilisers, through massive private and public investment that went into transforming agriculture in a number of countries, starting in Mexico and India. [59] However, many in the food sovereignty movement are critical of the green revolution and accuse those who advocate it as following too much of a Western culture technocratic program that is out of touch with the needs of majority of small producers and peasants. [60]

While the green revolution greatly increased food production and averted famine, world hunger continues because it did not address the problem of access. [61] Food sovereignty advocates argue that the green revolution failed to alter the highly concentrated distribution of economic power, particularly access to land and purchasing power. [62] Critics also argue that the green revolution's increased use of herbicides caused widespread environmental destruction and reduced biodiversity in many areas. [63]

Academic perspectives

Food Regime theory

According to Philip McMichael, a "world agriculture" under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture ("food from nowhere") represents one pole of the "central contradiction" of the present regime. He is interested in the food sovereignty movement's potential to escalate the tension between this and its opposing pole, the agroecology-based localism ("food from somewhere") advocated by various grassroots food movements. [64] Offering slightly different conclusions, recent work by Harriet Friedmann suggests that "food from somewhere" is already being co-opted under an emergent "corporate-environmental" regime [65] (cf. Campbell 2009). [66]

Criticisms

Wrong baseline assumptions

Some scholars argue that the Food Sovereignty movement follows wrong baseline assumptions, citing that small-scale farming is not necessarily a freely chosen lifestyle and farmers in least developed and highly developed countries do not face the same challenges. These critics claim the Food Sovereignty movement may be right about the mistakes of neoliberal economic ideology, but it is silent about the fact that many famines actually occurred under socialist and communist regimes that pursued the goal of food self-sufficiency (cf. Aerni 2011). [67]

Political-jurisdictional model

There is a lack of consensus within the food sovereignty movement regarding the political or jurisdictional community at which its calls for democratisation and renewed "agrarian citizenship" [68] are directed. In public statements, the food sovereignty movement urges strong action from both national governments and local communities (in the vein of the indigenous rights movement, Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) . Elsewhere it has also appealed to global civil society to act as a check against abuses by national and supranational governing bodies. [69]

Those who take a radically critical view on state sovereignty would argue against the possibility that national sovereignty can be reconciled with that of local communities [70] (see also the debate about multiculturalism and indigenous autonomy in Mexico [71] [72] [73] ).

Crisis of the peasantry?

In its strong reassertion of rural and peasant identities, the food sovereignty movement has been read as a challenge to modernist narratives of inexorable urbanisation, industrialisation of agriculture, and de-peasantisation. However, as part of ongoing debates over the contemporary relevance of agrarianism in classical Marxism, [74] [75] Henry Bernstein is critical of these accounts. He claims that such analyses tend to present the agrarian population as a unified, singular and world-historical social category, failing to account for:

  • a population's vast internal social differentiation (North/South, gender and class positionalities);
  • the conservative, cultural survivalist tendencies of a movement that has emerged as part of a backlash against the perceived homogenising forces of globalisation [76] (Boyer discusses whether food sovereignty is a counter or anti-development narrative [77] ) Berstein claims that these accounts cannot escape a certain agrarian populism (or agrarianism). For a response to Bernstein, see McMichael (2009). [78]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Spanne, Autumn (9 August 2021). "Food Sovereignty: Definition, Principles, and Importance". Treehugger.
  2. ↑ Rivera-Ferre, Marta G.; Binimelis, Rosa; López-i-Gelats, Feliu; Di Masso, Marina (2019). "Food Sovereignty". Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 1272–1277. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_560. ISBN   978-94-024-1179-9.
  3. ↑ Siwior, Przemysław (2021). "Food Sovereignty: Definition, Origin of the Concept, and Sustainable Food System". No Poverty. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer International Publishing. pp. 343–352. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95714-2_67. ISBN   978-3-319-95714-2.
  4. ↑ Wittman, Hannah (2023). "Food sovereignty: An inclusive model for feeding the world and cooling the planet". One Earth . 6 (5): 474–478. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.04.011 .
  5. ↑ Hemert, Mieke van (2023). "Food Sovereignty". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.812. ISBN   978-0-19-938941-4.
  6. ↑ Pimbert, M. P.; Claeys, Priscilla (2024). "Food Sovereignty". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.297. ISBN   978-0-19-085458-4.
  7. 1 2 Hannah Wittman, Annette Desmarais & Nettie Wiebe "Food Sovereignty - Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community" (2010)
  8. ↑ Holt-Giménez, Eric (2009). "From Food Crisis to Food Sovereignty: The Challenge of Social Movements". Monthly Review. 61 (3): 142–156. doi:10.14452/MR-061-03-2009-07_11.
  9. 1 2 Declaration of Nyéléni Archived 17 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine (text), Nyéléni 2007 - Forum for Food Sovereignty. Accessed online 19 February 2010.
  10. ↑ International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), Global Summary for Decision Makers Archived 17 July 2012 at archive.today Accessed online 23 September 2008
  11. ↑ Ayres, Jeffrey; Bosia, Michael J. (1 February 2011). "Beyond Global Summitry: Food Sovereignty as Localized Resistance to Globalization". Globalizations. 8 (1): 47–63. Bibcode:2011Glob....8...47A. doi:10.1080/14747731.2011.544203. S2CID   58946040.
  12. ↑ Edwards, Ferne (2019). "Venezuelan Food Sovereignty Movement". Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer Netherlands. pp. 2421–2427. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_514. ISBN   978-94-024-1179-9 . Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Peña, Karla (Winter 2008). "Opening the Door to Food Sovereignty in Ecuador". Food First. 30 (111): 1, 4.
  14. ↑ Mansbridge, Joanna (2018). "Animating Extinction, Performing Endurance: Feathers, Angels, and Indigenous Eco-Activism". Theatre Topics. 28 (2): 113–123. doi:10.1353/tt.2018.0020. S2CID   191545689. Project MUSE   700177.
  15. ↑ Grey, Sam; Newman, Lenore (September 2018). "Beyond culinary colonialism: indigenous food sovereignty, liberal multiculturalism, and the control of gastronomic capital". Agriculture and Human Values. 35 (3): 717–730. doi:10.1007/s10460-018-9868-2. S2CID   158355593.
  16. 1 2 Satterfield, Dawn; DeBruyn, Lemyra; Santos, Marjorie; Alonso, Larry; Frank, Melinda (12 February 2016). "Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities — Traditional Foods Project, 2008–2014". MMWR Supplements. 65 (1): 4–10. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.su6501a3 . PMID   26916637.
  17. 1 2 3 Coté, Charlotte (15 July 2016). "'Indigenizing' Food Sovereignty. Revitalizing Indigenous Food Practices and Ecological Knowledges in Canada and the United States". Humanities. 5 (3): 57. doi: 10.3390/h5030057 .
  18. 1 2 Jernigan, Valarie Blue Bird; Huyser, Kimberly R.; Valdes, Jimmy; Simonds, Vanessa Watts (2 January 2017). "Food Insecurity Among American Indians and Alaska Natives: A National Profile Using the Current Population Survey–Food Security Supplement". Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. 12 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1080/19320248.2016.1227750. PMC   5422031 . PMID   28491205.
  19. ↑ Vernon, Rachel (9 September 2015). "A Native Perspective: Food is More Than Consumption". Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development: 1–6. doi: 10.5304/jafscd.2015.054.024 .
  20. ↑ "Indian Health Disparities". Indian Health Service. January 2013.
  21. ↑ Office, US Census Bureau Public Information. 2010 Census Shows Nearly Half of American Indians and Alaska Natives Report Multiple Races - 2010 Census - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/2010_census/cb12-cn06.html. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.
  22. ↑ "National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)", Encyclopedia of United States Indian Policy and Law, CQ Press, 2009, doi:10.4135/9781604265767.n441, ISBN   978-1-933116-98-3
  23. ↑ "Tribal Sovereignty and State Jurisdiction", American Indians and State Law, UNP - Nebraska, pp. 19–50, 2007, doi:10.2307/j.ctt1djmgrn.5, ISBN   978-0-8032-0989-3
  24. 1 2 Park, Sunmin; Hongu, Nobuko; Daily, James W. (September 2016). "Native American foods: History, culture, and influence on modern diets". Journal of Ethnic Foods. 3 (3): 171–177. doi: 10.1016/j.jef.2016.08.001 .
  25. ↑ Frank, Lois Ellen. "How Native American Diets Shifted After European Colonization". HISTORY. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  26. ↑ Protecting and Restoring Indigenous Peoples’ Food Sovereignty. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/protecting-and-restoring-indigenous-peoples-food. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.
  27. ↑ Murphy, Andi. (2019). Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty. Retrieved from https://civileats.com/2019/07/24/indigenous-food-security-is-dependent-on-food-sovereignty/
  28. ↑ Grey, Sam; Patel, Raj (September 2015). "Food sovereignty as decolonization: some contributions from Indigenous movements to food system and development politics". Agriculture and Human Values. 32 (3): 431–444. doi:10.1007/s10460-014-9548-9. S2CID   55545504.
  29. ↑ "The Growth of the Native Food Sovereignty Movement". Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  30. 1 2 LaDuke, Winona. (2012). Seeds of Our Ancestors, Seeds of Life, TEDxTC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNlel72eQc
  31. 1 2 White, Rowen. (2018). The Native Seed Pod, Episode 1. https://www.nativeseedpod.org/podcast/2018/episode-1-the-natural-law-of-seeds
  32. ↑ Maudrie, Tara L; Colón-Ramos, Uriyoán; Harper, Kaitlyn M; Jock, Brittany W; Gittelsohn, Joel (29 July 2021). "A Scoping Review of the Use of Indigenous Food Sovereignty Principles for Intervention and Future Directions". Current Developments in Nutrition. 5 (7): nzab093. doi:10.1093/cdn/nzab093. ISSN   2475-2991. PMC   8321882 . PMID   34345758.
  33. ↑ Wilson, Taylor; Shukla, Shailesh (12 June 2020). "Pathways to Revitalization of Indigenous Food Systems: Decolonizing Diets through Indigenous-focused Food Guides". Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 9 (4): 201–208. doi: 10.5304/jafscd.2020.094.003 . S2CID   225730240.
  34. ↑ "USDA Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative". www.usda.gov. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  35. ↑ Altmann, Philipp (2014). "Good Life As a Social Movement Proposal for Natural Resource Use: The Indigenous Movement in Ecuador". Consilience (12): 82–94. ISSN   1948-3074. JSTOR   26476154.
  36. ↑ "CARES: Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability – BEST Lab UC Berkeley". best.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  37. ↑ Fitts, Robert K. (1998). Inventing New England's slave paradise : master/slave relations in eighteenth-century Narragansett, Rhode Island. New York, NY: Garland Pub. p. 14. ISBN   0-8153-3280-7.
  38. ↑ Stiles, Ezra (1916). Dexter, Franklin Bowditch (ed.). Extracts from the Itineraries and Other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D. D., LL. D., 1755-1794: With a Selection from His Correspondence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 114–15.
  39. ↑ Brown, William (1823). The History of the Propagation of Christianity Among the Heathen Since the Reformation: In Two Volumes. Edinburgh, Scotland: Fullarton. p. 669.
  40. ↑ Mandell, Daniel R. (2010). Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780-1880. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 14. ISBN   9780801898198.
  41. ↑ Ron, Ariel (2020). Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic. JHU Press. p. 12. ISBN   978-1-4214-3932-7.
  42. ↑ Clark-Pujara, Christy (2016). Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. NYU Press. pp. 24–27. ISBN   978-1-4798-7042-4.
  43. ↑ O'Malley, Gregory E. (2014). Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807. UNC Press Books. p. 213. ISBN   978-1-4696-1535-6.
  44. ↑ Clark-Pujara, Christy (2016). Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. NYU Press. p. 90. ISBN   978-1-4798-7042-4.
  45. ↑ Taylor, Alan (2010). The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 31 and 119. ISBN   978-1-4000-4265-4.
  46. ↑ Kirakosian, Katharine; Museum, Tomaquag. "Narragansett Food Sovereignty Initiative (NFSI)". Rhode Tour.
  47. ↑ "Seed Sovereignty". Seed Sovereignty. The Gaia Foundation. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  48. ↑ Hoidal, Natalie (2 October 2015). "What's in a seed? The critical role of seed politics in the food sovereignty movement". Sustainable Food Trust. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  49. ↑ Shattuck, Annie; Schiavoni, Christina M.; VanGelder, Zoe (4 July 2015). "Translating the Politics of Food Sovereignty: Digging into Contradictions, Uncovering New Dimensions". Globalizations. 12 (4): 421–433. Bibcode:2015Glob...12..421S. doi:10.1080/14747731.2015.1041243. ISSN   1474-7731. S2CID   18838563.
  50. ↑ Sampson, Devon; Cely-Santos, Marcela; Gemmill-Herren, Barbara; Babin, Nicholas; Bernhart, Annelie; Bezner Kerr, Rachel; Blesh, Jennifer; Bowness, Evan; Feldman, Mackenzie; Gonçalves, André Luis; James, Dana; Kerssen, Tanya; Klassen, Susanna; Wezel, Alexander; Wittman, Hannah (2021). "Food Sovereignty and Rights-Based Approaches Strengthen Food Security and Nutrition Across the Globe: A Systematic Review". Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 5. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2021.686492 . ISSN   2571-581X.
  51. ↑ Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialogue.
  52. ↑ Noll, Samantha E. (2017), Werkheiser, Ian; Piso, Zachary (eds.), "Food Sovereignty in the City: Challenging Historical Barriers to Food Justice", Food Justice in US and Global Contexts, The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, vol. 24, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 95–111, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57174-4_9, ISBN   978-3-319-57173-7 , retrieved 1 December 2022
  53. 1 2 "Food Sovereignty: Global Rallying Cry of Farmer Movements". Food First. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  54. ↑ "Global Dialogue, Magazine of International Sociology Association". globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org (in European Spanish). Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  55. ↑ "FBLI". The Global FoodBanking Network. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  56. ↑ Gentilini, Ugo (2013). "Banking on Food: The State of Food Banks in High-income Countries". IDS Working Papers. 2013 (415): 1–18. doi:10.1111/j.2040-0209.2013.00415.x.
  57. ↑ McMichael, Philip (2009). "A food regime genealogy". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 36 (1): 139–169. doi: 10.1080/03066150902820354 . ISSN   0306-6150. S2CID   15330376.
  58. ↑ Jansen, Kees (2 January 2015). "The debate on food sovereignty theory: agrarian capitalism, dispossession and agroecology". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 42 (1): 213–232. doi:10.1080/03066150.2014.945166. ISSN   0306-6150. S2CID   154690036.
  59. ↑ Pingali, Prabhu L. (31 July 2012). "Green Revolution: Impacts, limits, and the path ahead". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (31): 12302–12308. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10912302P. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0912953109 . PMC   3411969 . PMID   22826253.
  60. ↑ Saha, Madhumita; Schmalzer, Sigrid (2016). "Green-revolution epistemologies in China and India: technocracy and revolution in the production of scientific knowledge and peasant identity". BJHS Themes. 1: 145–167. doi: 10.1017/bjt.2016.2 . S2CID   20900741.
  61. ↑ Nature: poor people's wealth (PDF). Friends of the Earth International. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.[ page needed ]
  62. ↑ Timmermann, Cristian; Félix, Georges F.; Tittonell, Pablo (16 March 2018). "Food sovereignty and consumer sovereignty: Two antagonistic goals?". Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 42 (3): 274–298. Bibcode:2018AgSFS..42..274T. doi:10.1080/21683565.2017.1359807. S2CID   158627067.
  63. ↑ Alteri, Miguel (2009). "Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty". ProQuest. 102-113.
  64. ↑ McMichael, Philip (January 2009). "A food regime genealogy". Journal of Peasant Studies . 36 (1): 139–169. doi: 10.1080/03066150902820354 . S2CID   15330376.
  65. ↑ Friedmann, Harriet (2006). "From Colonialism to Green Capitalism: Social Movements and Emergence of Food Regimes". New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development. Research in Rural Sociology and Development. Vol. 11. pp. 227–264. doi:10.1016/S1057-1922(05)11009-9. ISBN   0-7623-1250-5.
  66. ↑ Campbell, Hugh (2009). "Breaking new ground in food regime theory: corporate environmentalism, ecological feedbacks, and the 'food from somewhere' regime?". Agriculture and Human Values. 26 (4): 309–319. doi:10.1007/s10460-009-9215-8. S2CID   155035613.
  67. ↑ Aerni, Philipp (2011). "Food Sovereignty and its Discontents". ATDF Journal. 8 (1/2): 23–39. .
  68. ↑ Wittman, Hannah (2009). "Reworking the metabolic rift: Via Campesina, agrarian citizenship, and food sovereignty". Journal of Peasant Studies . 36 (4): 805–826. doi:10.1080/03066150903353991. S2CID   154073329.
  69. ↑ Patel, Raj (July 2009). "Food sovereignty". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 36 (3): 663–706. doi: 10.1080/03066150903143079 . S2CID   195182328.
  70. ↑ Smith, Mick (2009). "Against ecological sovereignty: Agamben, politics and globalisation". Environmental Politics. 18 (1): 99–116. Bibcode:2009EnvPo..18...99S. doi:10.1080/09644010802624843. S2CID   144735294.
  71. ↑ Aida Hernandez, J (May 2002). "Indigenous law and identity politics in Mexico: indigenous men's and women's struggles for a multicultural nation" (PDF). PoLAR. 25 (1): 90–109. doi:10.1525/pol.2002.25.1.90. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  72. ↑ Stolle-McAllister, J (2005). "What does democracy look like?: local movements challenge the Mexican transition". Latin American Perspectives. 32 (15): 15–35. doi:10.1177/0094582x05278141. S2CID   144007903.
  73. ↑ Hilbert, Sarah (1997). "For whom the nation? Internationalization, Zapatismo, and the struggle over Mexican modernity". Antipode. 29 (2): 115–148. Bibcode:1997Antip..29..115H. doi:10.1111/1467-8330.00039.
  74. ↑ Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon; Kay, Cristóbal (2012). Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Agrarian Transformation and Development. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-06464-9.[ page needed ]
  75. ↑ Araghi, Farshad (1995). "Global depeasantisation, 1945-1990". The Sociological Quarterly. 36 (2): 337–368. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb00443.x.
  76. ↑ Bernstein, Henry (2008). "Agrarian questions from transition to globalization". In Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon; Kay, Cristóbal (eds.). Peasants and Globalization. Routledge. pp. 239–261. ISBN   978-0-203-89183-4.
  77. ↑ Boyer, Jefferson (2010). "Food security, food sovereignty, and local challenges for agrarian movements: the Honduras case". Journal of Peasant Studies . 37 (2): 319–351. doi:10.1080/03066151003594997. S2CID   153380687.
  78. ↑ McMichael, Philip (2008). "Food sovereignty, social reproduction and the agrarian question". In Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon; Kay, Cristóbal (eds.). Peasants and Globalization. Routledge. pp. 288–312. ISBN   978-0-203-89183-4.

Literature

Related Research Articles

Agroecology is an academic discipline that studies ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems. Bringing ecological principles to bear can suggest new management approaches in agroecosystems. The term can refer to a science, a movement, or an agricultural practice. Agroecologists study a variety of agroecosystems. The field of agroecology is not associated with any one particular method of farming, whether it be organic, regenerative, integrated, or industrial, intensive or extensive, although some use the name specifically for alternative agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food security</span> Measure of the availability and accessibility of food

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The availability of food for people of any class and state, gender or religion is another element of food security. Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security includes resilience to future disruptions of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as droughts and floods, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security: a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Via Campesina</span> International agricultural organization

La Vía Campesina is an international farmers organization founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries, and describing itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ejido</span> Communal farming unit in Mexico

An ejido is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights rather than ownership rights to land, which in Mexico is held by the Mexican state. People awarded ejidos in the modern era farm them individually in parcels and collectively maintain communal holdings with government oversight. Although the system of ejidos was based on an understanding of the preconquest Aztec calpulli and the medieval Spanish ejido, since the 20th century ejidos have been managed and controlled by the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heirloom plant</span> Historic food crop cultivar

An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, heritage fruit, or heirloom vegetable is an old cultivar of a plant used for food that is grown and maintained by gardeners and farmers, particularly in isolated communities of the Western world. These were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but are not used in modern large-scale agriculture.

Indigenous decolonization describes ongoing theoretical and political processes whose goal is to contest and reframe narratives about indigenous community histories and the effects of colonial expansion, cultural assimilation, exploitative Western research, and often though not inherent, genocide. Indigenous people engaged in decolonization work adopt a critical stance towards western-centric research practices and discourse and seek to reposition knowledge within Indigenous cultural practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of the World Trade Organization</span> Criticism directed at the World Trade Organization

Since its creation in 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has worked to maintain and develop international trade. As one of the largest international economic organizations, it has strong influence and control over trading rules and agreements, and thus has the ability to affect a country's economy immensely. The WTO policies aim to balance tariffs and other forms of economic protection with a trade liberalization policy, and to "ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible". Indeed, the WTO claims that its actions "cut living costs and raise standards, stimulate economic growth and development, help countries develop, [and] give the weak a stronger voice." Statistically speaking, global trade has consistently grown between one and six percent per annum over the past decade, and US$38.8 billion were allocated to Aid for Trade in 2016.

The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agroecology in Latin America</span> Agroecological practices in Latin America

Agroecology is an applied science that involves the adaptation of ecological concepts to the structure, performance, and management of sustainable agroecosystems. In Latin America, agroecological practices have a long history and vary between regions but share three main approaches or levels: plot scale, farm scale, and food system scale. Agroecology in Latin American countries can be used as a tool for providing both ecological, economic, and social benefits to the communities that practice it, as well as maintaining high biodiversity and providing refuges for flora and fauna in these countries. Due to its broad scope and versatility, it is often referred to as "a science, a movement, a practice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrol Dew Johnson</span> Tohono Oodham artist and community leader from Arizona (1973–2024)

Terrol Dew Johnson (1973–2024) was a Tohono O'odham basket maker, sculptor, and health advocate, who promoted Indigenous food sovereignty to promote health and prevent diabetes.

Eric Holt Giménez is an agroecologist, political economist, lecturer and author. From 1975 to 2002 he worked in Mexico, Central America and South Africa in sustainable agricultural development. During this time he helped to start the Campesino a Campesino Movement. He returned to the U.S. twice during this period: once for his M.Sc. in international agricultural development and then for his Ph.D. in environmental studies. His dissertation research was the basis for his first book Campesino a Campesino: Voices from the farmer-to-farmer movement for sustainable agriculture in Latin America. After receiving his Ph.D. with an emphasis in agroecology and political economy, he taught as a university lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and Boston University in the International Honors Program in Global Ecology. He gives yearly courses of food systems transformation and social movements in Italy in the Masters program of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo and in the doctoral program at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, Le Monde Diplomatique, La Jornada and The Des Moines Register. He has a blog on the Huffington Post.

Community food security (CFS) is a relatively new concept that captures emerging ideas about the central place of food in communities. At times it refers to the measure of food access and availability at the community level, and at other times to a goal or framework for place-based food systems. It builds upon the more commonly understood concept of food security, which refers to food access and availability at an individual or household level (in health and social policy, for instance) and at a national or global level (e.g., in international development and aid work). Hamm and Bellows (2003) define CFS as “a situation in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice” (p. 37). CFS involves social, economic, and institutional factors, and their interrelationships within a community that impact availability and access to resources to produce food locally. It takes into account environmental sustainability and social fairness through measures of the availability and affordability of food in that community relative to the financial resources available to purchase or produce it.

Agrarian socialism is a political ideology that promotes social ownership of agrarian and agricultural production as opposed to private ownership. Agrarian socialism involves equally distributing agricultural land among collectivized peasant villages. Many agrarian socialist movements have tended to be rural, locally focused, and traditional. Governments and political parties seeking agrarian socialist policies have existed throughout the world, in regions including Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, Africa and Australia.

Food sovereignty is a highly influential idea in Bolivian political discourse. It is incorporated into multiple pieces of Bolivian legislation, including the 2009 constitution drafted underneath president Evo Morales. Food sovereignty fits into Morales' larger goal of the symbolic decolonization of Bolivia. First coined by indigenous and peasant worker advocacy organization Via Campesina, food sovereignty is the right for a state's people to produce and distribute culturally appropriate foods without the impingement of economic pressures created by foreign agribusiness producers. The presence of foreign agribusiness in Bolivia can be traced back to exploitative resource extraction that proliferated in South America with 19th century liberalism. Modern-day wholesale agribusiness production makes competition difficult for Bolivia's small-scale farmers, who often take out high-interest loans and consequently accumulate debt.

Indigenous feminism is an intersectional theory and practice of feminism that focuses on decolonization, Indigenous sovereignty, and human rights for Indigenous women and their families. The focus is to empower Indigenous women in the context of Indigenous cultural values and priorities, rather than mainstream, white, patriarchal ones. In this cultural perspective, it can be compared to womanism in the African-American communities.

Climate change disproportionately impacts indigenous peoples around the world when compared to non-indigenous peoples. These impacts are particularly felt in relation to health, environments, and communities. Some Indigenous scholars of climate change argue that these disproportionately felt impacts are linked to ongoing forms of colonialism. Indigenous peoples found throughout the world have strategies and traditional knowledge to adapt to climate change, through their understanding and preservation of their environment. These knowledge systems can be beneficial for their own community's adaptation to climate change as expressions of self-determination as well as to non-Indigenous communities.

The Food Justice Movement is a grassroots initiative which emerged in response to food insecurity and economic pressures that prevent access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods. The food justice movement moves beyond increasing food availability and works to address the root cause of unequal access to adequate nutrition. Like other Environmental Justice initiatives, the Food Justice Movement advocates for rights-based solutions that identify the underlying human rights that allow individuals to achieve adequate food security and nutrition. This differs from policy-based solutions that focus on food availability and affordability by increasing food production or lowering the cost of food.

Villagization was a land reform and resettlement program in Ethiopia implemented by the Derg in 1985 that aimed to systematize and regulate village life and rural agriculture. Villagization typically involved the relocation of rural communities or nomadic groups to planned villages with communal farmland.

A number of movements seek to expand the practice of agroecology in West Africa. Agroecology is a scientific discipline, movement and practice that integrates ecology in agriculture with strong emphasis on diversification, food sovereignty, energy efficiency and sustainability. Agroecological practices apply the systems and knowledge that traditional farmers in the region have developed and inherited. The agroecological social movement empowers smallholder farmers that hold the knowledge of indigenous farming systems, however are recently engulfed by larger farms or are migrating to urban areas, looking for better paying jobs.

Landlessness is the quality or state of being without land, without access to land, or without having private ownership of land. Although overlapping considerably, landlessness is not a necessary condition of poverty. In modern capitalist societies, individuals may not necessarily privately own land yet still possess the capital to obtain an excess of what is necessary to sustain themselves, such as wealthy individuals who rent expensive high-rise apartments in major urban centers. As such, landlessness may not exist as an immediate threat to their survival or quality of life. This minority of landless individuals as sometimes been referred to as the "landless rich." However, for the majority of landless people, including the urban poor and those displaced into conditions of rural-to-urban migration, their condition of landlessness is also one of impoverishment, being without the capital to meet their basic necessities nor the land to grow their own food, keep animals, or sustain themselves. During times of economic prosperity in modern capitalist societies, the liabilities of landlessness may not be noticeable, especially to the wealthy, but during times of economic failure and rising unemployment, the liabilities of landlessness become more visible.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.