Food Sovereignty

Linking the Local to the Global

In the Clervaux gardens, our work is not just about producing healthy and ecologically sound food, or working therapeutically with our residents; we are part of a national and global move towards food sovereignty.

For the first time in human history, over a billion people have been officially classified as living in hunger.  This record total is not a consequence of poor global harvests or natural disasters. Hunger on this scale is the result of a global economy in which hundreds of millions of small farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and indigenous people have faced ruin through the hijacking of the global food system by large agribusiness and food retailers.

The dominant model for dealing with the food crisis is to address the ‘food security’ needs of countries and peoples. This model - backed by the UK government - is based on market solutions to the problems of world hunger, with food treated as just another commodity to be traded on global markets. It is a model based on free trade in agricultural commodities, on corporate-owned technology and on greater private sector control of food production and distribution. It is a model that has failed.

‘Food sovereignty’ is an approach to the food crisis that priorities people's right to food, agro-ecology and a global food system free of corporate control.  At a governmental level, organisations such as the international peasants’ movement Via Campesina, in alliance with other NGOs, are lobbying development agencies and the UN for a change in agricultural policies towards those which empower small farmers rather than multinational corporations.

At a local level, we are working towards re-establishing the role of the small mixed farm, connected to the local community, as part of the solution on the ground.