Food Sovereignty: A New Model for a Human Right

Last month, Grassroots International, along with a few other U.S. food justice organizations, collaborated with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter to organize his U.S. visit. Among his most important stops, de Schutter spoke at the United Nations on May 4, 2009, presenting a report on the right to food in the context of the global food crisis.

In his recommendations to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, De Schutter included, “the need, not only to increase food production, but to reorient agro-food systems and the regulations that influence them at national and international levels, towards sustainability and the progressive realization towards the right to food.”

Grassroots International applauds his courageous approach to a rights-based framework for solutions to the food crisis, we agree with our partners and allies that food sovereignty goes even further. The statement below by La Via Campesina and Friends of the Earth International explains how food sovereignty moves beyond a human rights approach to food, arguing that sustainable agriculture and small farms are key to feeding the planet.