Feminist Food Sovereignty: Crafting a New Vision

Debates around food security and food sovereignty center on questions of social justice. This paper provides a feminist analysis of global and local food security and sovereignty through utilizing feminist theoretical interventions. Feminist theoretical interventions include feminist analysis of neoliberalism, social reproduction and care, intersectionality, feminist political ecology, and “another world feminism.” I discuss and analyze three feminist approaches to food security and food sovereignty: the dominant gender and food security model, feminist food sovereignty, and a reframing of feminist food justice. First, I present an analysis of how gender and food security issues are approached by the UN, as well as other development institutions. Second, I analyze how gender issues are approached in the food sovereignty movement, and finally I suggest a new framework for feminist food justice.

Carolyn Sachs is a Professor, Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies, and Department Head, Women’s Studies, Penn State University Professor Sachs’s research focuses on women farmers, gender and food, and gender and climate change. Her books include Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production Agriculture; Gendered Fields: Rural Women, Agriculture and Environment; and Women Working in the Environment.

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