Food Sovereignty

This exceptional collection gives voice to the peasant movements that are planting the seeds of a revolution that could fundamentally alter our relationship with food - and with each other.

With increasing hunger in the world, especially among marginalised populations in both the North and South, the current high-input, industrialised, market-driven food system is failing. It is failing to provide for the food needs of all people, failing to respect the principles of environmental sustainability, and it undermines local empowerment and agrarian citizenship.

Around the world, people are resisting the environmental, social and political destruction perpetuated by the industrial agricultural system. This resistance has led to a new and radical agricultural practice – food sovereignty – which puts control in the hands of those who are both hungry and produce the world's food – peasants and family farmers – rather than corporate executives.

Advocating a practical, radical change to the way much of our food system operates the contributors, including Raj Patel, Walden Bello, Philip McMichael, Miguel Altieri and Eric Holt-Gimenez, show through analysis and case studies that food sovereignty results in increased production, safe food that reaches those who are in the most need and agricultural practices that respect the earth. This is the means to achieving the UN-endorsed goal of food security.

"For anyone wishing to look behind the usual strategies advanced for increasing food production and to consider radical alternatives, this volume offers much to reflect on."

New Agriculturist, May 2011

Contributors: Miguel A. Altieri, Mara Baviera, Walden Bello, Saturnino "Jun" Borras Jr., Madeleine Fairbairn, Carla Fehr, Jennifer C. Franco, Jim Handy, Eric Holt-Giménez, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Itelvina Masioli, Philip McMichael, Paul Nicholson, Raj Patel, Annie Shattuck