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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Why Food Sovereignty Is the New Food Security
  • Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:29:38 -0600



Why Food Sovereignty Is the New Food Security
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/12-14
by Salena Tramel
Published on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 by The Huffington Post

Most of us would agree that there is a serious problem vis-a-vis access to
food in the developing world. According to the UN food agency, there are now
more than one billion undernourished people worldwide. The need to do
something about the broken food system is especially apparent in Haiti, where
I have been on a working assignment with Grassroots International for the
past few weeks.

Last year, before the financial crisis spun out of control, the global food
crisis was front and center in the media in Haiti and around the world.
Hungry rioters took to the streets of Port-au-Prince demanding fair prices
for rice and grain. Some Haitians even built a micro-industry selling patties
made from mud, oil, and sugar -- an ancient remedy to help alleviate hunger
pangs.

Just because the financial crisis is getting all the attention these days
doesn't mean that the food crisis is any less severe. Actually, the two have
much in common, arising from 30 years of failed economic and agricultural
policy.

Like many other countries, Haiti was subjected to trade liberalization and
privatization in the mid 1980s by international financial institutions such
as the World Bank and donor countries like the U.S. During this time, U.S.
agribusinesses flooded the local market with massive quantities of cheap
subsidized staple foods with which Haitian peasants couldn't compete. After
the large-scale imports had succeeded in paralyzing local production, prices
skyrocketed. A kilo of imported rice is now worth an average day's salary in
the Artibonite, a region once known as Haiti's "rice bowl."

Dumping is not unique to the Artibonite, let alone Haiti. Mexican farmers
import corn from the Midwest, Indian producers often depend on Texan basmati
rice, and mass-produced U.S. beef fills the shelves of Korean supermarkets.
Of course, many of these countries are also exporting their own agricultural
products -- but from a place of comparative, rather than competitive
advantage, leaving them vulnerable to shock and speculation on the
marketplace.

Unfortunately, many aid and relief programs perpetuate these trade and
agriculture policies in an attempt to achieve "food security." Traditional
food security, on the most basic level, is access to enough food for
survival. To that end, public and private aid has invested heavily in
shipments of food aid to the most vulnerable parts of the world. These
policies fail to stipulate that people have a right to define their own food
sources and sustainable future access -- which would amount to real food
security. What happens when these cartels inevitably dry up? Food insecurity
returns with vengeance.

Take the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) "Food for Work"
program in Haiti as an example. USAID and international NGOs have continually
implemented "Food for Work" in Haiti's most rural areas, especially during
times of crises. Instead of spending their money revitalizing the
agricultural sector, these programs round up small-scale farmers to build
roads and clean out sewage systems. In return, they receive vouchers for
imported rice, flour, and cooking oil. Since these programs usually work on a
project-to-project basis, when the work runs out so does the food (not to
mention that their farms were left inactive the entire time). "Charity" with
the goal of "food security" is often redefining dependency in these cases,
deepening the fissures between the "periphery" and "core" of wealth in the
world.

But there's an alternative to this pseudo-food security -- and it is growing
fast. "Food Sovereignty" is the new progressive version of "food security."
Via Campesina, the more than 150 million-member strong global network of
farmers and small-scale producers first coined the term in 1996. Food
sovereignty rejects the proposition that food is just another commodity for
international agribusiness. Instead, it puts providers and consumers at the
center of decision-making. This people-centered approach is deeply rooted in
local production, based on the principal rights of farmers to produce the
quantity and quality of food that they need to secure their livelihoods and
those of future generations.

Haiti's hopes for achieving food sovereignty are creating a buzz across the
island, with local organizers seeing themselves as part of an international
movement. A couple of days ago, I attended a youth forum in one of the areas
that was most damaged by last year's hurricanes. The young farmers had
planted a community vegetable garden and were being trained in animal
husbandry. Well aware of the concept of food sovereignty, they were proud to
be growing healthy food for their families and community. Globally, those
most affected by the food crisis are determined to end it once and for all.

Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
Salena Tramel is an international development professional and independent
journalist. She has worked, studied, and traveled in more than forty
countries and is currently the Program Coordinator for the Middle East and
Haiti at Grassroots International.





  • [Livingontheland] Why Food Sovereignty Is the New Food Security, Tradingpost, 08/13/2009

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