Global Activism in Food Politics

A comment on Henry Bernstein's way with peasants, and food sovereignty

“…Because the food regime 1 itself is evolving and restructuring, food sovereignty embodies movement. In its 'second generation' phase, it operates on both rural and urban fronts, separately and together, connecting producers, workers, consumers and various activist organizations (Holt-Giménez and Shattuck 2011;Wittman, Desmarais, and Wiebe 2011;Andrée et al 2014;Mann 2014;cf Araghi 2000). Nevertheless, it is important to recognize food sovereignty's origins in the global agrarian crisis of the last three decades (Desmarais 2002;McMichael 2014a).…”

“…Neither of these forms constitutes political projects analogous to the revolutionary surges of the last century examined by Wolf. All three forms, then, do not/cannot address the current mobilization of small producers, as embodied, for example, in Vía Campesina's food sovereignty project (Desmarais 2007;Martinéz-Torres and Rosset 2010), and in the broader set of current (cross-thematic and cross-class) alliances (Holt-Giménez and Shattuck 2011;Mann 2014). This is a growing mobilization (a 'movement of movements') expressing a particular conjunctural crisis precipitated by neoliberal institutions of market rule (structural adjustment, WTO trade and investment regime, state privatization).…”

Food Security, Land, and Development

“…Th e classical agrarian question concerning the modalities of peasant eclipse as capital commodifi es the land is being reframed as a question concerning the principle of 'food fi rst', privileging healthy diets produced on a scale appropriate to environmental and human health (Lappé 1971 ;UNCTAD 2013 ;McMichael 2013b ). A vibrant food sovereignty movement across the world, combining land movements with a myriad of local agrifood experiments Desmarais 2007 ;Wittman et al 2010Wittman et al , 2011Andrée et al 2014 ;Mann 2014 ), represents an emergent alternative to a development narrative premised on abstraction of land and local land users at the expense of comprehensive food security. In consequence, development theory is under pressure to acknowledge the primacy of food provisioning, but under sustainable conditions-how that will proceed is already prefi gured in the multiple tensions around defi ning and implementing 'sustainability'.…”

“…Within this broader critique, combined with the evident failure of neoliberal trade relations to guarantee food security, there is a renewed interest in redefi ning development in participatory terms, which concretise the current lip service to sustainability by anchoring it in place-based strategies drawing on cultures of self-organisation and ecological renewal. Th e global food sovereignty movement represents one such form of an ontological turning of mainstream 'development' on its head (Mann 2014, Andreé et al 2014 ).…”

A Human Rights Approach to the Health Implications of Food and Nutrition Insecurity

“…Food and nutrition security is assured through food sovereignty, understood as "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" [72]. By upholding the rights of producers, food sovereignty serves as a precondition for the right to food [76] and provides a basis by which states can be resilient in adjusting to global disruptions in food production and distribution. Such a shift toward national control over food systems implicates the need to translate the development of a right to food and nutrition security under international law into the implementation of this intersectional right through national policy [77].…”