Abstract

Throughout the millennia, food has had many roles in human societies: cultural, health, pride, tradition, vitality. However, in the 20^th century, food became increasingly perceived in terms of just calories. Energy in and energy out. It’s this convoluted paradigm that has driven the development of industrial agriculture and processed food along with the multitude of chemicals that are pumped into it. The so-called “Green Revolution” was concocted to glorify this burgeoning global food regime in the name of food security and ensuring that the masses have “sufficient food at all times”. Yet, this simplified modus operandi has resulted in a lopsided food system where the power and control over seeds, land, resources, availability, access and the economics of it all is in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. In an effort to counter this rising tide of corporate hegemony, the “food sovereignty” movement has emerged in the last few decades as a grassroots endeavour to reclaim the food system and restore the right to and respect of food. In this presentation, I will first trace the evolution of the concept of food sovereignty in the context of the global South and North, delineate the basic problems with the food security-based broken food system and then illustrate food sovereignty’s potential with some unique examples. Finally, I will suggest an approach of making food sovereignty more operational so that it can inject the complexity and information flows back into the food system and serve as an essential basis in food policy decision-making.

The colloquium will take place on Zoom: https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/65059092610