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. 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. 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.
Produce from a garden in Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota in 2019.
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.
Three sisters: maize, beans, and squash planted together.
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.
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. Food systems fall within agri-food systems, which encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal, and consumption. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic, technological and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate. Food systems are dependent on a multitude of ecosystem services. For example, natural pest regulations, microorganisms providing nitrogen-fixation, and pollinators.
A greenhouse with salad of a cooperative
An organic food box of an organic food delivery service
A farmers' market offering food produced by community-supported agriculture that is also delivering online orders
The heavy industrialization of USA, Europe and China is responsible for 90% of the world's pollution.