food sovereignty

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the right of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own food and agricultural systems according to their cultural values, social needs, and ecological conditions rather than being determined by international commodity markets and corporate supply chains; the concept was developed by La Via Campesina, the international peasant movement, in 1996 and contrasts with the more limited concept of food security, which focuses on access to calories but not on who controls food production or how it is produced; food sovereignty encompasses seed rights, access to land and water, the right to traditional knowledge, and democratic governance of food systems