Worldwide, the food sovereignty movement is taking root. The multitude of new food sovereignty initiatives speak to its strength as a concept, and as a source of practical responses to today’s problematic food and farming system. The stories in this issue of Farming Matters address interwoven issues of food sovereignty related to production, processing, trade … Read moreEditorial: Food Sovereignty from the ground up

In his call for solidarity, Masa Koné argues that food sovereignty is about controlling our peasant seeds. Currently, we live in a world of extremes in the global food system. On one hand, there are the politics of the capitalist system, of those who control the world and just want to make business at our … Read moreOpinion: Peasants embody food sovereignty

In what ways is agroecology a means to food sovereignty? In Brazil, claiming land rights was the first step along one group of farmers’ pathway to autonomy. The next was to develop and maintain agroecological practices. To achieve this goal, these farmers never worked alone. Strong self-organisation and long-lasting partnerships enabled them to redesign their … Read moreAgroecology for food sovereignty

Producers and citizens are working together to transform our food systems to make them more socially just, culturally appropriate and respectful of the environment. While shifts in policy are overdue, struggles to attain food sovereignty are popping up all over Europe. This special section highlights a few of these. Introduction Agriculture in Europe has long … Read moreSpecial section – Food sovereignty: stories from Europe

Land grabbing is no longer a phenomenon of the Global South only. In rural Germany, a highly undemocratic form of land control is accelerating the process of land concentration, contributing to the increase of land prices and creating barriers for young farmers to enter agriculture. With the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of … Read moreResisting land grabbing in Germany

Four decades of communism and an overnight transition from socialism to the free market caused dramatic shifts in consumer – food producer relationships across Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic, a history of cooperatives and local food production contrasts with the situation today. Now the country is almost entirely dependent on international trade and supermarkets. … Read moreRegaining trust: alternative food systems in the Czech Republic

Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje explains that to build food sovereignty in Africa, we need to speak with farmers and look in their fields. We are faced with incredible challenges that are being intensified by the false solutions of seed and biotech companies. With their ‘experts’ and ‘scientists’, in connivance with government agencies, they all claim to be … Read moreOpinion: Nutrition grows in farmers’ fields

Striving for food sovereignty takes many shapes and forms. From innovations in farmers’ fields to legal reform that supports farmers’ rights, each initiative contributes to a stronger movement. Scroll down to read stories from Algeria, Australia, Switzerland and Colombia.  Algeria Innovation keeps tradition alive Food sovereignty in marginal areas of the Maghreb has always depended … Read moreLocally rooted: ideas and intiatives from the field

Human Rights and the Food Sovereignty Movement: Reclaiming Control Priscilla Claeys. 2015. Routledge. 210 pages. ISBN: 978-1138793019 While the negative impacts from land grabbing, speculation with agricultural commodities, agrofuels and climate change become increasingly evident, the policies that have created these problems have not faltered in their march. At the same time, social movements that … Read moreMind! > Books and films

In Zimbabwe, children across the country are putting food sovereignty into practice. They are redesigning their schoolyards based on permaculture principles to regenerate the soil, harvest rainwater and produce their own food. Children from more than half the schools that have gone down this path are now able to supplement their lunches with freshly picked produce. … Read moreWe are not too young