Food sovereignty and safeguarding food security for everyone Issues for scientific investigation

The paper considers food sovereignty [FS] as an aspiration, or value, held by various social movements (first and most notably La Vía Campesina [LVC]) and food producing communities, (i) to control or determine the shape of all aspects of their food system; (ii) to produce sufficient and healthy food in culturally appropriate and ecologically sustainable ways, normally in and near their locales; (iii) to utilize and develop agroecological approaches to production; (iv) to protect farmers’ right to seed, land, water and fair markets, and their communities, livelihoods and social and environmental sustainability; and (v) for the development of regional, national and international policies that would democratize the administration of food systems and further the realization of (i)–(iv).

Hugh Lacey is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College; and Visiting Professor, Institute of Advanced Studies, and Research Fellow in the ‘Thematic Project’, “The origins and meaning of technoscience: Science, technology, values and society”, University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is the author of Values and Objectivity in Science (2005), and A Controvérsia sobre os Transgênicos: Questões científicas e éticas (2006).

Food Sovereignty: a critical dialogue, 14 - 15 September, New Haven.