Food sovereignty vs food security

Our current food system, which emerged during the Green Revolution, is rooted in principles of productivism and free-market economics, transforming agriculture into a profit-driven endeavour focused on maximising productivity. While this model has been praised for significantly improving food security, it has also been criticised for prioritising profit and quantity over health, equity, and environmental sustainability. This approach has led to considerable environmental degradation and socio-economic inequalities, prompting calls for alternative approaches.

One such alternative is food sovereignty, which emphasises equity, democracy, and sustainability in food systems. Unlike the top-down, market-driven approaches to ensuring food security, food sovereignty advocates for local control over food systems, ensuring that the needs and rights of communities are respected, cultural diversity is maintained, and ecological balance is prioritised. Understanding the differences between these two approaches is essential for addressing the global challenges of food security in a more sustainable and equitable manner.

What is food security?

Food security occurs when people have sufficient access to safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for a healthy and active life. It encompasses the availability of food, its accessibility, and its proper utilisation. Historically, efforts to achieve food security have focussed on increasing food production, stabilising food prices, and providing social safety nets to ensure access for vulnerable populations.

Global food security is threatened by a combination of environmental, economic, and social factors that include climate change, population growth, urbanisation, supply chain challenges, inequality, and unsustainable farming methods. Climate change is disrupting agricultural production through extreme weather events, reducing crop yields and livestock productivity. Meanwhile, rapid population growth is increasing the demand for food, but urbanisation is shrinking the available farmland as agricultural areas are converted for development. These pressures are further compounded by inefficiencies in food supply chains, economic disparities that limit access to food, and unsustainable agricultural practices that degrade natural resources and harm the environment.

What is food sovereignty?

The concept of food sovereignty goes beyond just ensuring access to food (which is the sole focus of food security) and emphasises the right of people and communities to control their own food systems. This means that people should have the power to shape their own food policies, decide how food is produced and distributed. 

It stresses that food systems should prioritise local and regional food economies focusing on sustainable practices that support small farmers, protect biodiversity, and preserve traditional knowledge. Food sovereignty aims to sustain the livelihoods, cultures, and environments of communities, rather than being dictated by external forces like global markets or large corporations.

Building on these principles, the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) has developed a comprehensive framework that revolves around four key pillars: the right to food, access to productive resources (such as land and water), agroecological production, and local trade markets. These pillars form the foundation of food sovereignty, promoting it as a critical tool for achieving long-term food security by ensuring that communities have access to the resources they need.

The relationship between food security and sovereignty

While food security and food sovereignty both aim to end global hunger and ensure food accessibility they differ considerably in their approaches. Food security operates within a neoliberal framework, prioritising large-scale production, market distribution, and corporate involvement to increase global food availability.

In contrast, food sovereignty emphasises localised, community-controlled food systems to address the shortcomings of food security. It prioritises the rights of people to control their own agricultural practices, promotes environmental sustainability, and values cultural relevance and social justice. Food sovereignty challenges corporate food systems and encourages small-scale farming to conserve the environment and promote social equity. Its focus is on addressing the root causes of food insecurity by empowering local communities and resisting international market forces that contribute to inequality.

The differences between food security and food sovereignty extends to how they are managed by governments and policymakers. Governments and policymakers typically support food security by promoting large-scale agricultural production, improving infrastructure, and facilitating global food distribution systems. This approach often focuses on increasing food availability through market mechanisms, emphasising efficiency and short-term accessibility. Policies aligned with food security tend to favour industrial farming, global trade, and consumer protection. Such policies aim to ensure that food is widely available, particularly during crises.

Advancing food sovereignty on the other hand requires governments, policymakers, NGOs, and community organisations to implement initiatives that empower local communities and prioritise sustainable, locally controlled food systems. In the global south these policies might involve supporting smallholder farmers through financial aid and training, land reform policies, participatory guarantee systems, establishing farmer cooperatives, developing agroparks and food hubs or creating seed saving and sharing programs. In more developed regions food sovereignty initiatives might include the development of community gardens, farmers’ markets, and urban agriculture projects and cooperative food businesses.

It is likely that governments and policymakers will want to consider implementing a blend of both food security and food sovereignty approaches to address both short-term and long-term challenges within the food system. This can be achieved by using large-scale agricultural production and global food distribution to address immediate food needs, while simultaneously empowering local communities to foster long-term sustainability, equity, and self-sufficiency. This integrated approach allows for the creation of resilient food systems that not only ensure immediate access to food but also promote localised food systems that prioritise cultural relevance, social justice, and environmental stewardship.

Food sovereignty vs food security

At Farrelly Mitchell we offer insights on sustainable practices and developing resilient food systems. Our wide range of supports cover regenerative agriculture, water management, food security, food loss and waste and much more. For more information on how our team can assist in developing effective food security and sovereignty policies, plans and strategies please contact us today.