Whose Justice is it Anyways?

 

This week’s topic is about Food Sovereignty and Food Security and their approach to food justice. I think the title is perfect for this topic because the authors explain how both concepts have the same goal but disconnect with certain ideas and solutions. I’ve gotten the idea that Food Sovereignty is the ideal agenda of this article, but I also noticed that Food Security wasn’t really looked down upon but instead critiqued on where it should pay more attention to. The authors thoroughly define these concepts of Food Sovereignty and Security while highlighting where they conflict.

            In this article, Food Security was described as a large-scale project eliminating malnutrition and hunger worldwide. There were also goals mentioned of Food Security that may be in common with Food Sovereignty like removing distribution barriers and creating stable communities. Food security was never discredited in this article, but you can get the idea that it’s inferior in a way to Food Sovereignty. Food Security was also described to depend on four factors being economic access, food availability, stability of supply, and food utilization. I’m not saying those are the wrong things to pay attention to, but I there’s more important things to address like Food Sovereignty does. This reminds me of how food deserts are being addressed, making it seem like “access” is the primary problem.

            Food Sovereignty was explained as the right of the people to define their agricultural policy without the above negative effects. Personally, I like the other definition that was included in the Declaration of Nyéléni (2006) because it better highlights the importance of the citizens having more control in our food systems. When describing Food Sovereignty, the authors also categorize its factor into pillars like Food Security. In Food Sovereignty there’s only three that’s indigenous conceptions of justice, community focused commitments, and environmental commitments. Overall, I support the holistic approach of Food Sovereignty and how it could passively regenerate communities and possibly motivate more people to play a role in their community.