Abstract
The emerging concept of food sovereignty refers to the right of communities, peoples, and states to independently determine their own food and agricultural policies. It raises the question of which type of food production, agriculture and rural development should be pursued to guarantee food security for the world population. Social movements and non-governmental organizations have readily integrated the concept into their terminology. The concept is also beginning to find its way into the debates and policies of UN organizations and national governments in both developing and industrialized countries. Beyond its relation to civil society movements little academic attention has been paid to the concept of food sovereignty and its appropriateness for international development policies aimed at reducing hunger and poverty, especially in comparison to the human right to adequate food (RtAF). We analyze, on the basis of an extensive literature review, the concept of food sovereignty with regard to its ability to contribute to hunger and poverty reduction worldwide as well as the challenges attached to this concept. Then, we compare the concept of food sovereignty with the RtAF and discuss the appropriateness of both concepts for national public sector policy makers and international development policies. We conclude that the impact on global food security is likely to be much greater if the RtAF approach predominated public policies. While the concept of food sovereignty may be appropriate for civil society movements, we recommend that the RtAF should obtain highest priority in national and international agricultural, trade and development policies.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
For a more detailed overview of the history of the human right to adequate food please refer to section “The right to adequate food”.
La Via Campesina was founded in 1993. It is an influential international movement with 148 member organizations of small and medium-size farmers, rural women and workers and indigenous groups from 69 countries (La Via Campesina 2008).
While the term ‘peasant’ in everyday English usage is a rather pejorative term, the national and international farmers’ movements embrace the term ‘peasant’ with pride (Desmarais 2008). We use the term in line with the understanding of these movements.
The majority of hungry people live in developing countries, especially in rural areas, and are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture (UN-HRC 2010). 50% of hungry people are peasants, 20% landless workers, 10% fisherfolk, pastoralists and forest dwellers, while 20% live in urban areas (UN Millennium Project 2005).
For purposes of simplification, in the following these various groups are gathered under the overarching term ‘peasants’.
Searching the UNEP and World Bank homepage, there are some documents which indicate contacts to NGOs/CSOs favouring the concept of food sovereignty (for examples, please see http://www.unep.org/GC/GC23/documents/GC23-INF16-Add2.pdf; http://go.worldbank.org/O0JOO2HJC0; http://go.worldbank.org/SQWUA7UDH0; http://go.worldbank.org/WLQOGIHCL0). The World Bank supports the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) which list food sovereignty as one of their main objectives for agriculture (see below).
The documents, like their discussion series, do not necessarily express the views of UNCTAD. Documents, where the concept of food sovereignty at least appears, are for example UNCTAD, 2009, Food security in Africa: learning lessons from the food crisis (http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tdbex47d3_en.pdf), or the Civil Society Forum Declaration to UNCTAD XI in 2004 (http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/td407_en.pdf).
The IPC is a global network of CSOs and social movements concerned with food sovereignty issues. The IPC serves as a facilitation mechanism for the dialogue between social movements/CSOs and the UN agencies dealing with food and agriculture.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) replaced the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in 2006.
For its work, ECOWAS requested support from the World Bank. The World Bank approved funding for the first phase of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) in 2007. (http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22931606~menuPK:2246551~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:258644,00.html).
Participating countries were Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and the Dominican Republic.
The FAO has calculated that an increase in agricultural production of 70% is necessary by 2050 to feed the world population (FAO 2009).
There are 77 of low-income food deficit countries (FAO 2010).
An overview of their documents is provided on their homepage: http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi_en.htm.
The homepage provides an overview of relevant documents: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/food/annual.htm.
References
Altieri, Miguel A., and Clara I. Nicholls. 2008. Scaling up agroecological approaches for food sovereignty in Latin America. Development 51(4): 472–480.
BDM. n.y. Die Ziele des BDM. Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter (BDM). http://bdm-verband.org/html/index.php?module=Content&func=view&pid=9. Accessed 15 November 2010.
Beauregard, Sadie. 2009. Food policy for people: Incorporating food sovereignty principles into state governance. Los Angeles: Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College. http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/uep/studentwork/09comps/Food%20Policy%20for%20People.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Bello, W. 2008. How to manufacture a global food crisis. Development 51(4): 450–455.
Bouët, Antoine, Jean-Christophe Bureau, Yvan Decreux, and Sébastien Jean. 2005. Multilateral agricultural trade liberalisation: The contrasting fortunes of developing countries in the Doha round. World Economy 28(9): 1329–1354.
Bouët, Antoine, Simon Mevel, and David Orden. 2007. More or less ambition in the Doha round: Winners and losers from trade liberalisation with a development perspective. World Economy 30(8): 1253–1280.
Boyer, Jefferson. 2010. Food security, food sovereignty, and local challenges for transnational agrarian movements: The Honduras case. Journal of Peasant Studies 37(2): 319–351.
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. 1995. Menschenrechte—dokumente und deklarationen. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.
CDU, CSU, and FDP. 2009. Wachstum. Bildung. Zusammenhalt. Koalitionsvertrag zwischen CDU, CSU und FDP. 17. Legislaturperiode. http://www.cdu.de/doc/pdfc/091026-koalitionsvertrag-cducsu-fdp.pdf. Accessed 22 November 2010.
Cline, W.R. 2007. Global warming and agriculture: Impact estimates by country. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development and Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Cotula Lorenzo, Moussa Djiré, and Ringo W. Tenga. 2008. The right to food and access to natural resources—Using human rights arguments and mechanisms to improve resource access for the rural poor. Right to Food Studies. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi09/natural_resources_en.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
DBV. 2010. Gemeinsame Erklärung zum Erntedank 2010. Sep 23rd 2010. Deutsche Bauernverband (DBV). http://www.bauernverband.de/index.php?redid=352351. Accessed 15 November 2010.
De Schutter, Olivier. 2010. Countries tackling hunger with a right to food approach. Briefing Note 01—May 2010. http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/otherdocuments/20100514_briefing-note-01_en.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Desmarais, Annette A. 2008. The power of peasants: Reflections on the meanings of La Via Campesina. Journal of Rural Studies 24(2): 138–149.
ECOWAS. 2008. Regional agricultural policy for West Africa: ECOWAP. Economic community of West African states (ECOWAS). http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/01_ANG-ComCEDEAO.pdf. Accessed 15 November 2010.
EPFS. n.y. The European platform for food sovereignty. European Platform for Food Sovereignty (EPFS). http://www.epfs.eu/content.aspx?l=003&lang=ENG. Accessed 24 November 2010.
European Commission. 2009. Food security: Understanding and meeting the challenge of poverty. DG EuropeAid—European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/infopoint/publications/europeaid/163a_en.htm. Accessed 15 November 2010.
FAO. 2008. Food security, the right to adequate food and food sovereignty. Right to food. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). http://www.fao.org/righttofood/kc/downloads/vl/docs/Thomas%20Harmon%20_%20FS%20Rtf%20Food%20Sovereignty.ppt. Accessed 12 November 2010.
FAO. 2009. Global agriculture towards 2050. How to feed the world 2050. High-level expert forum, 12–13 October 2009. Rome Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf. Accessed 15 November 2010.
FAO. 2010. Low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDC)—List for 2010. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/lifdc.asp. Accessed 15 November 2010.
FAO. 2005. Voluntary guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/y9825e/y9825e00.HTM. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Germanwatch and AbL. 2007. Ernährungssouveränität: Ansätze im Umgang mit dem Konzept in Deutschland. Workshop, 12 April 2007. Berlin/Hamm: Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft e.V. (AbL) and Germanwatch. http://www.germanwatch.org/handel/ernsouv07.pdf. Accessed 21 September 2010.
Godfray, H. Charles J., John R. Beddington, Ian R. Crute, Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, Jules Pretty, Sherman Robinson, Sandy M. Thomas, and Camilla Toulmin. 2010. “Food security: The challenge of feeding 9 billion people.” Science 327(5967): 812–818.
Haugen, Hans Morten. 2009. Food sovereignty—An appropriate approach to ensure the right to food? Nordic Journal of International Law 78(3): 263–292.
IAASTD. 2009. Agriculture at a crossroads. Synthesis report of the international assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for development. Washington DC: Island Press.
IAASTD. n.y. Über den Weltagrarbericht. http://www.weltagrarbericht.de/themen-des-weltagrarberichtes/ueber-den-weltagrarbericht.html. Accessed 15 November 2010.
La Via Campesina. 2009. La Via Campesina policy documents. 5th Conference. Mozambique, 16–23 October 2008. http://viacampesina.org/downloads/pdf/policydocuments/POLICYDOCUMENTS-EN-FINAL.pdf Accessed 22 October 2010.
La Via Campesina. 2008. Our members. http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=71. Accessed 22 October 2010.
La Via Campesina. 1996. The right to produce and access to land. Food sovereignty: A future without hunger http://www.voiceoftheturtle.org/library/1996%20Declaration%20of%20Food%20Sovereignty.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Menezes, Francisco. 2001. Food Sovereignty: A vital requirement for food security in the context of globalization. Food sovereignty: A vital requirement for food security in the context of globalization. Development 44(4): 29–33.
McMichael, Philip. 2008. Peasants make their own history, but not just as they please…. Journal of Agrarian Change 8(2–3): 205–228.
McClain-Nhlapo, Charlotte. 2004. Implementing a human rights approach to food security. 2020 Africa Conference brief no. 13. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/ib/ib29.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Meadows, Donella, Jorgen Randers, and Denis Meadows. 2009. Grenzen des Wachstums. Das 30-Jahre-Update, 3rd ed. Stuttgart: Hirzel.
Mechlem, Kerstin. 2004. Food security and the right to food in the discourse of the United Nations. European Law Journal 10(5): 631–648.
Murphy, Sophia. 2008. Globalization and corporate concentration in the food and agriculture sector. Development 51(4): 527–533.
Narula, Smita. 2006. The right to food: Holding global actors accountable under international law. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 44(3). Accessed at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=951582##. Accessed 19 June 2011.
NGO/CSO Forum for Food Sovereignty. 2007. Declaration of Nyéléni. 27 February 2007. Nyéléni Village, Sélingué, Mali. http://www.nyeleni.org/IMG/pdf/DeclNyeleni-en.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
NGO/CSO Forum for Food Sovereignty. 2002. Food sovereignty: A right for all political statement of the NGO/CSO forum for food sovereignty. Rome, 13 June 2002. http://www.nyeleni.org/spip.php?article125. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Patel, Raj. 2009. What does food sovereignty look like? The Journal of Peasant Studies 36(3): 663–773.
Pimbert, Michel. 2008. Towards food sovereignty: Another world is possible for food and agriculture (Part I: Chapters 1-3). London: IIED. http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=G02268. Accessed 21 September 2010.
Rosset, Peter M. 2006. Food is different. Why we must get the WTO out of agriculture. London and New York: Zed Books.
Rosset, Peter M. 2008. Food sovereignty and the contemporary food crisis. Development 51(4): 460–463.
Stiglitz, Joseph E., and Andrew Charlton. 2007. Fair trade for all. How trade can promote development. New York: Oxford University Press.
UN-CESCR. 1999. Substantive issues arising in the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. General Comment 12: The right to adequate food (Art. 11). New York: United Nations-Economic and Social Council. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/3d02758c707031d58025677f003b73b9. Accessed 22 October 2010.
UNCHR. 2004. Economic, social and cultural rights. The right to food. E/CN.4/2004/10. New York: United Nations-Commission on Human Rights (CHR). http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/100/98/PDF/G0810098.pdf?OpenElement. Accessed 22 June 2011.
UNHRC. 2010. Preliminary study of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on discrimination in the context of the right to food. A/HRC/13/32. New York: United Nations-Human Rights Council (HRC). http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-32.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
UNHRC. 2008. Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food. A/HRC/7/5. New York: United Nations-Human Rights Council (HRC). http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/100/98/PDF/G0810098.pdf?OpenElement. Accessed 22 June 2011.
UN Millennium Project. 2005. Halving hunger: It can be done. Summary version of the report of the task force on hunger. New York: The Earth Institute at Columbia University. http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/HTF-SumVers_FINAL.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
United Nations. 2010. Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Treaty Collection: United Nations. http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-3-a&chapter=4&lang=en. Accessed 15 November 2010.
WFP. 2009. Hunger and markets. World hunger series. Rome: World Food Programme (WFP). http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp200279.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
WFS. 1996. Rome declaration on world food security. Rome: World Food Summit (WFS). http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.HTM. Accessed 8 November 2010.
Windfuhr, Michael, and Jennie Jonsén. 2005. Food Sovereignty. Towards democracy in localized food systems. Rugby: ITGD Publishing. http://www.ukabc.org/foodsovereignty_itdg_fian_print.pdf. Accessed 22 October 2010.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Beuchelt, T.D., Virchow, D. Food sovereignty or the human right to adequate food: which concept serves better as international development policy for global hunger and poverty reduction?. Agric Hum Values 29, 259–273 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-012-9355-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-012-9355-0