FS - From protest to policy: The challenges of institutionalizing food sovereignty

Abstract

In response to the failure of current approaches to alleviate the linked challenges of global food insecurity and environmental degradation—many of which involve voluntary measures to improve agricultural efficiency and increase yield—grassroots actors have called for the re-regulation and state-based institutionalization of principles derived from the food sovereignty framework (Iles & Montenegro de Wit, 2014; Wittman, 2011). As articulated by international agrarian movements in the mid 1990s, these principles include ecological sustainability; distributive justice, ensuring a socially just allocation of resources (Agyeman & Alkon, 2011); and procedural justice, which involves “fair and transparent decision-making processes that are adaptable to specific local conditions” (Loos et al., 2014, p. 357).