Food Sovereignty: Power, Gender, and the Right to Food

Summary Points

• Understanding hunger and malnutrition requires an examination of what systems and institutions hold power over food.
• The concept of “food security” captures the notion of hunger not as a deficit of calories, but as a violation of a broader set of social, economic, and physical conditions.
• Gender is key to food insecurity and malnourishment, because women and girls are disproportionately disempowered through current processes and politics of food's production, consumption, and distribution.
• La Via Campesina has advocated for food sovereignty, through which communities have the right to define their own food and agriculture policy. Women's rights are central elements to food sovereignty.
• The role of the food industry demands attention within the food system, where power is concentrated in the hands of a few corporations.

[Part of PLoS Medicine series on Big Food; Patel RC (2012) Food Sovereignty: Power, Gender, and the Right to Food. PLoS Med 9(6): e1001223. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001223]