Food Sovereignty, Food Security and the Right to Food

This article provides an historical and critical discussion of the emergence and evolution of food sovereignty as a concept, framework, movement, political project, process and vision. We distinguish food sovereignty from other concepts -- such as food security, the right to food, food justice and food democracy – that are often used in discussions of food and agrarian questions, while demonstrating that the relationship between these is contested and constantly evolving. We also provide a brief overview of scholarly debates on food sovereignty by summarizing several key critiques and challenging questions that academics and activists are grappling with when analyzing the potential, politics and limitations of this new vision of rural development, agriculture and food. We argue that food sovereignty is about a whole lot more than food and agriculture. It is nothing less than an emancipatory political project for radical social change.