Food sovereignty is the right for people to decide about their own strategies and policies to guarantee their food safety while considering the effects on others. Through food choices as well as agricultural or trade policies, it guarantees access to healthy and sustainable food. It is a global concept within which social aspects, economy, politics and the environment are closely intertwined. It also supposes an access to resources (land, water, seeds,…) necessary to meet the population’s needs.

Originating from alter-globalization movements such as Via Campesina, the concept of food sovereignty has taken off since the 1990s. According to Olivier de Schutter, former United Nation-special spokesman for the right to food, a consensus now exists “on the fact that each country must be helped to feed itself, and that the question of food cannot be resolved by concentrating production in the most efficient regions nor help and trade.”

More than a production system, it is also a social system that puts food back at the center of our society’s concerns. Highly political, this idea supposes to adapt to each population, with its own environment and cultural past. Food sovereignty also includes environmental preservation for future generations.

In terms of ways of action, according to Miguel Altieri, professor of agroecology, food sovereignty has to be based on agroecology, which can ensure food security while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. On the other hand, the fact of being independent towards global international agribusiness is a way to foster the diversity of local productions. The returning to small farms, family and peasant farming and vegetable gardening is a powerful lever for food sovereignty. This list is non-exhaustive, and differs depending on the actors and their social and political aspirations.