Food sovereignty: a global movement for local, national and global transformation
Dr Nick Rose, National Coordinator, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance
“In 1991 I argued that a nation of gardeners are more likely to be prepared to pay a fair price to farmers and support policies that favour those who produce food for a livelihood. I believe it is the disconnection from the realities of working with nature that have allowed policies supporting reliable year-round supply of standardised, cheap junk food controlled by corporations.” David Holmgren, Food for Thought: Permaculture for Food Security and Food Sovereignty, Pip Magazine, Inaugural Issue, March 2014
In its first issue, Pip Magazine ran a piece by David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture, in which he discussed the role of permaculture, as a set of design principles for sustainable and resilient living, and as a socio-political strategy to achieve food security and food sovereignty.
As one of a growing number of fair food activists and as National Coordinator of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, I am grateful to Pip’s editor, Robyn Rosenfeld, for this opportunity to contribute some of my thoughts to the readership of Pip and the broader permaculture movement regarding what food sovereignty is, its relationship to permaculture, and vice-versa.
David Holmgren’s vision of a permaculture-inspired food secure and food sovereign-future for Australia, made manifest in the abundance of food growing, gleaning, harvesting and sharing throughout our towns, cities and rural areas, is one I entirely embrace and fervently desire. Permaculture is a leading and essential element of the wider movement for food sovereignty in this country and beyond. Food sovereignty as a social and political movement now embraces in the order of 300 million people across 80 countries in every continent.
At one level my reflections here are mostly by way of complementing David’s article. The most important point I want to make is to fill out the conception of food sovereignty that he offered Pip’s readers. As a global movement with a 20-year history supported by dozens of gatherings and a growing body of both popular and academic literature, food sovereignty is certainly about ‘the right to produce one’s food in one’s own territory’, as David wrote, but it is much, much more than that.
However I also believe there is the need to delve a little deeper into the root causes of some of the crises and problems that David ennumerates and that confront us all at this time of great change and transition. To be explicit about these causes is important, because it helps inform our own theories of change and expectations of what the future may hold. David of course has made invaluable contributions in that respect, with his Future Scenarios writings recently updated in the provocative and widely-read Crash on Demand monograph.1
I begin then by examining the question of root causes, before turning to food sovereignty, what it means, its relationship to permaculture, and what it offers all of us concerned with prospects for a fair, sustainable and resilient future for this country and the world.
1 http://holmgren.com.au/crash-demand/. 2 Foster, J.B., Clark, B., and York, R., 2010, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, Monthly Root causes of the ‘crises’
“If you know your history, then you will know where you’re coming from…” Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier
When we examine national and global food and agricultural systems, what immediately confronts us is a large and alarming series of converging crises. David catalogued many of these in the first section of his article, and there is no need for me to rehearse them. Suffice to say they are serious, and cover every sphere of our existence: ecological, social, economic, political and cultural.
However merely listing the various crises doesn’t of itself advance our understanding in terms of answering the question: why? Why are all these crises manifesting, and why now? David alludes to ‘disaster capitalism’ and ‘market failures to feed people first’, and concludes that ‘the global economic system has failed to provide food security’. Absolutely. But why has it failed?
David touches on what I believe to be the main reason, in terms of causality, in the quote I cited at the start of this article. The key word is disconnection.
Climate change, obesity, hunger, food safety scares, etc.
Over-produc on, inequality, ecological destruc on
Concentra on of wealth and power
Disconnec on – money is highest value
Figure: What’s wrong with our food system?
The figure above is something I’m modestly proud of: after six years of researching and writing a PhD and producing in the order of 300,000 words through various drafts and re-writes, I was able to condense half of it into one Venn diagram. This is my effort to understand the problems with our food system, in a causal and historical sense; and pointing in the direction of positive ways forward. And it starts with what David himself identified – disconnection from nature. The story of our separation from nature is vast indeed – the subject of many books, and takes us far back to creation myths from many cultures, such as ‘the fall from grace’ in Judeo-Christian cultures. From the perspective of Anglo-European Australia, one of the most significant historical moments was the ‘enclosure of the commons’ in England and throughout Europe during the centuries-long transition period from feudalism to capitalism. Few if any of us learn about this period in school, but appreciating what happened during those centuries is, as Silvia Federici documents in her remarkable and troubling book, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004), absolutely critical if we want to fully understand the culture and society we live in today; and what processes of change are unfolding.
What Federici chronicles, in the most meticulous manner, is the story of the massive and awful violence, repression, torture and massacres unleashed upon so-called ‘heretic communities’ – groups of people who wanted to live a different, self-sufficient lifestyle – and poor women in general. The main focus of the book is the terrible two-and-half century witch hunt, roughly from 1360-1610, in which millions and millions of women were brutally tortured and burned at the stake, supposedly for being ‘witches’. The real reasons for the persecution, Federici argues, are sinister in their cold, calculating logic; namely to achieve:
i) ‘the development of a new sexual division of labour subjugating women’s labour and women’s reproductive function to the reproduction of the work-force; ii) ‘the construction of a new patriarchal order, based upon the exclusion of women from waged-work and their subordination to men; and iii) ‘the mechanization of the proletarian body and its transformation, in the case of women, into a machine for the production of new workers.’ (p12)
While Karl Marx, Federici notes, ‘was acutely aware of the murderous character of capitalist development – it’s history, he declared, “is written in the annals of humanity in characters of fire and blood”, he was, she says, deeply mistaken in thinking that such violence would be a passing phase. Rather, Federici argues:
“A return of the most violent aspects of primitive accumulation has accompanied every phase of capitalist globalization, including the present one, demonstrating that the continuous expulsion of farmers from the land, war and plunder on a world scale, and the degradation of women are necessary conditions for the existence of capitalism in all times.” (12-13)
Hence Federici’s motivation for her book:
“To revive among younger generations the memory of a long history of resistance that today is in danger of being erased. Saving this historical memory is crucial if we are to find an alternative to capitalism. For this possibility will depend on our capacity to hear the voices of those who have walked similar paths.”
Caliban and the Witch tells the story of foundational separations – of people from the land, of women from control over their own bodies, of communities from linkages to natural rhythms of time and seasons – that has made possible our disconnected society and culture today. Specifically, in relation to food, most of us (permaculturalists, farmers and gardeners excepted) don’t know where our food comes from, how it was grown, what’s happening to the land on which it was grown, what are the livelihood conditions of the farmers, how much energy and non-renewable inputs are consumed in the production of food, what’s actually in our food, what it’s doing to our bodies – and on it goes. A cascading series of separations; in fact, I argue that the whole globalised, industrial and capitalist food system is actually based on an ontology – a paradigm, or worldview – of separation, disconnection and alienation. Its very continuation is premised on our not knowing, and remaining disconnected.
Returning then to my Venn diagram, this foundational separation and disconnection from nature – the severing of our ‘metabolic’ relationship with the soil and ecosystems, thereby creating a metabolic or ecological ‘rift’2 – has been replaced with a singular and unrelenting focus on money- making, as the highest social goal and the measure by which all progress is determined. The focus on money-making, combined with the separation of most people from the basic means of production – land – has led to extraordinary concentrations of wealth and power. There is an excellent animated infographic which explains the extent to which this has reached very clearly, you can view it at http://therules.org.
Going up through the Venn diagram, the causal process flowing from concentration of wealth and power has produced (at least) three major outcomes (in relation to food): over-production (of grains, meat and dairy); inequality (e.g. fabulous wealth for the Walton family that owns Walmart, while 2 billion people are malnourished, and live on $2 a day or less); and ecological degradation. These outcomes in turn are major drivers of the crises that David listed, which, in my analysis, are in really ‘surface phenomena’, reflective of deeper structural and causal processes beneath.
To sum up: I identify the root cause of our present troubles, like David, in a basic disconnection from nature. However, we need to appreciate, with Silvia Federici and many others, how this basic cause has become embedded and reinforced deep in our cultures and psyches, so that we now in effect take it for granted (subconsciously) that we are disconnected. We accept the pursuit of money and the accumulation of material wealth as the highest individual and social goals, even though we know (deep down, intuitively) that this is both illusory and (self)-destructive. We take it for granted that food is cheap and abundant, without really asking how or why this came about.
Yet more and more of us know something is not quite right. More and more of us are becoming alert to the notion that appearances can be deceptive, that all is not quite what it seems. We are constantly told that both ourselves as individuals and our economy needs to become more ‘productive’ and ‘globally competitive’; yet what is also flourishing are new forms of cooperation and collaboration; the recovery of the idea and the practice of the ‘commons’; and heterodox ideas such as ‘economic democracy’ and a ‘social and solidarity economy’. Permaculturalists and fair food activists are amongst the ‘early adopters’ of these expressions of the emerging new paradigm.
Food Sovereignty
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
2 Foster, J.B., Clark, B., and York, R., 2010, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, Monthly Review Press, New York. desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein
And what is that paradigm? If the big food system is premised on the paradigm of disconnection and alienation, in pursuit of the goals of endless ‘growth’ and profit, it follows that to overcome and transform that system, we need to embrace a new worldview, based on a different set of values and priorities. This is the worldview of healing and connection. It is the worldview of permaculture; and of food sovereignty. Everything about these movements points us towards reconnection.
David refers to one aspect of Food Sovereignty: the ‘right to produce one’s food on one’s own territory’. But it is, as I said, much more than that. Here is perhaps the most widely accepted definition of food sovereignty, produced after five days’ democratic discussion and debate amongst 500 people (mainly small-scale food producers, mainly women) in Selingue, Mali, in 2007, at the first global forum on Food Sovereignty:
“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers and users. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal - fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just incomes to all peoples as well as the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social and economic classes and generations.”3
Food Sovereignty, in other words, is a radical and egalitarian vision, discourse and political programme for a transformed food system – and through food, of a transformed global economy.
The Nyeleni Declaration, from which the above definition comes, also set forth Six Pillars of Food Sovereignty, stating that it4:
1. Focuses on Food for People: • insists on the right to nourishing food for everyone • insists that food is more than a commodity
3 For the full Declaration, see http://www.nyeleni.org/spip.php?article290. 4 A lightly edited version of the ‘Pillars’ developed at Nyéléni 2007, reproduced from Food Secure Canada: http://foodsecurecanada.org/six-pillars-food-sovereignty
2. Values Food Providers: • supports the right to produce food • supports sustainable livelihoods
3. Localises Food Systems: • places providers and consumers at the centre of food-related decision-making • rejects food dumping and inappropriate food aid • resists food system dependency on remote and unaccountable corporations
4. Localises Control: • places control in the hands of local food providers • recognises the need to inhabit and to share territories • rejects the privatization of ‘natural resources’ and the protects the global commons – water, air, land, seeds, climate
5. Builds Knowledge and Skills: • builds on traditional knowledge • uses research to support and pass this knowledge to future generations • rejects technologies that undermine or contaminate local food systems
6. Works with Nature: • uses nature's contributions in the design & management of sustainable food systems • builds and maintains resilience • rejects energy intensive, monocultural, industrialised, and destructive production methods
Permaculturalists will readily see a great deal of affinity and common ground here with the principles that are familiar to you. At the same time, Food Sovereignty is very much a political movement, engaging with local, national and global political processes and institutional actors. It works with farmers and urban food activists to create functioning and thriving local food systems right now, where we live and work.
Food Sovereignty and Permaculture – Theories of Change and Matters of Political Strategy
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received” Albert Einstein
Food Sovereignty also says that we can’t lose sight of two basic political and economic facts:
1. The basic operating logic of the system – the imperative for endless, infinite expansion of production and consumption (expressed in terms of ‘economic growth’) – is inherent and integral to capitalism. That must change, otherwise all efforts at ‘sustainability’ will at best only ameliorate the worst impacts of what are faced with 2. There is an entrenched concentration of power – a class system – which keeps the system in place. Effective ways must be found to tackle and confront that concentration of power.
It is here that I would disagree with David, as a matter of basic strategy and tactics. David anticipates, in a relatively short time frame, a collapse of the global financial system and economy, and indeed has recently written urging ‘middle class people’ to help bring that about (‘Crash on Demand’). In that essay, David says that the mass movements of the 20th century, the environmental movement in particular, have been ineffective because they have ‘failed to stop the juggernaut of global consumer capitalism’. There are a few brief points I want to make about that statement:
1. The environmental movement has done a frankly amazing job in raising levels of consciousness about environmental issues. That consciousness-raising laid the foundations for much of the great work and change we see today, permaculture and Transition towns included. Further, it secured important reforms and protections, including a significant expansion in national parks, World Heritage Sites and associated zones of biodiversity protection. While many of these reforms are now in danger of being eroded, that is reflective of the basic reality that history is dynamic and not uni-directional. It is often a case of two steps forward, one step back – or at times two or three steps back. 2. We should not be so glib in turning our backs on the mass movements of the 20th century and indeed from earlier periods in our collective history. Our quality of life in Australia owes a huge debt of gratitude to the trade unionists and the suffragettes and civil rights movements that fought and sacrificed and often died so that we – their inheritors - could enjoy a better life. We forget those movements and their achievements at our peril – because those gains are constantly at risk of being eroded, as we are now seeing. All of us who strive for a vision of a better and fairer world stand on the shoulders of the men and women who carried the torch of equality and freedom in decades and centuries past. Let us recognise and be grateful to them. 3. The global economy may well already be in an unfolding ‘crash’. The brunt of this crisis is being foisted on to the backs and pockets of working women and men all round the world. The full chill of the age of austerity is about to reach these shores, and those who are poorest and most vulnerable will be the hardest hit. It behooves us, who make claims to have strong values and ethics and principles, to adopt a strong culture and practice of solidarity in such times. Ethically and politically, it is not good enough just to look to our immediate communities and friends and neighbours, with so much at stake.
The lessons from the 20th century are that the last time the global economy crashed, what emerged was outright fascism, genocide and world war. Going further back, communities and peoples that fought to be self-sufficient and pursue their own lifestyles and priorities outside mainstream society were ruthlessly persecuted into submission. It is naïve to speculate that if and when the global economy collapses, the main instruments of coercion and repression – the army and police – will somehow similarly disappear or become unavailable to elites wanting to preserve their assets.
Rather, the challenge is to work now to build the broadest possible coalitions of allied groups, individuals and movements who share a common vision and goal for a fair, sustainable and resilient food system – and society as a whole. Yes, let us work for to build skills, capacities and expand backyard gardens as much as we can. But let us also work with the many supportive local governments that are developing policies and frameworks to support communities wanting to get involved in urban food production. I personally know of 20 such councils as part of my work facilitating an urban and regional food network in Victoria. Let’s also recognise that while State and Federal Governments often are not supportive of local and fair food systems, there are many instances where they have been, as listed in the ‘further reading’ section. Where governments share a vision with the whole community, and work towards its realization major change is possible in a short space of time. A great example is the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, which Frances Moore Lappe calls the ‘City that Ended Hunger’: a halving in the rate of childhood malnutrition was achieved in only ten years through a comprehensive ‘zero hunger’ strategy.5 The outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, has in his final report, The Transformative Potential of the Right to Food – the culmination of six years’ detailed study of realities in countries around the world – stated very clearly that the elimination of hunger is eminently possible in our lifetime.6 What is the essential precondition for such an outcome? Democratic food systems - food sovereignty.
Further Reading Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on Food to the United Nations: Those who are interested can read his final report here, and it is certainly worth doing so if you want a full understanding of all the issues. The whole body of his work, and that of his predecessor, Jean Zeigler, is available at www.srfood.org, and is a rich source of material and evidence.
United Nations Development Program 1992 project, Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Sustainable Cities, 2001 updated edition now available on the internet at: www.jacsmit.com/book.html.
Indigenous Australian Agriculture: Charles Massy, “Collective Thinking and Country” Paper delivered at the Eco-Oceania Health Conference in Melbourne, December 2013. http://www.australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/blog/2014/03/07/collective-thinking-and- country/
• The Peoples Food Plan, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, 2012-2013 • The Local Food Act and Local Food Fund, Ontario, nov 2013 • Illinois Local Food Farms And Jobs Act 2009 Child Nutrition Act And Farm-To-School Laws Across The Us: The Farm-To-School Network Reaches Thousands Of Schools • 37 Us States Have Some Form Of Law Or Policy That Supports The Public Purchasing Of Locally Produced Food • Nsw Biodiversity Banking And Offsets Scheme • Market Forces: Creating Jobs Through Public Investment In Local And Regional Food Systems • The 25% Shift: The Benefits Of Food Localization For Ne Ohio And How To Realize Them • A Review Of Farmland Trusts: Communities Supporting Farmland, Farming And Farmers • Findings of the 2013 National Food Hubs Survey
5 Lappé, F.M., 2009, ‘The City that Ended Hunger’, Yes! Magazine, http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food- for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger. 6 http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20140310_finalreport_en.pdf.