What does food sovereignty look like? Donaldo Zúniga explains why empowering communities to grow their own food is a key—yet often overlooked—solution to world hunger.
A: To us, food sovereignty is the right of Campesinas and Indigenous people to make decisions regarding their own food production and to establish their own agricultural policies. [It’s] the right to use their native seeds, set prices for their products, and ensure the protection of their local markets.
A: Personally, I believe that to end hunger, the neglected tactic has been the lack of knowledge of the potential and capacities that communities have to produce their own food. They [traditional aid institutions] commonly make the mistake of bringing imported food to families, thus violating their customs and food culture. In addition, by bringing food, often unintentionally, there is a negative impact on the economy of the communities since local production is discouraged.
Our suggestion is to strengthen the capacities of local families and communities to produce their own food.
A: Knowledge about good agricultural practices and simple technologies can be transferred to adapt to climate change, improve soil nutrition, and efficiently manage water and other natural resources. In addition, nutritional education and the economic and social empowerment of women are necessary, since they face the problem of hunger in their families every day.
A: The current production model promoted by capitalism is unsustainable. It is imperative to strengthen the potential and the capacties of women and men to produce their own food. Decision-makers commonly have neglected this strategy and made the mistake of bringing imported food to families, thus violating customs and food culture. The substitution of native and locally produced foods also generates a negative impact on the economy since local production is discouraged.
Local agroecological production must be promoted and implemented in harmony with life and nature. We must remember that we only have one planet earth and it is a high priority to stop its destruction.
A: In Campesina and Indigenous communities, native seeds are the heritage of communities. The rural and Indigenous families are guardians of the native seeds, these seeds are conserved and reproduced year after year in each crop cycle, thus guaranteeing the production of basic foods in the families’ nourishing diet. For example, corn and beans of many varieties, plants that produce leaves with high nutritional value such as mustard, amaranth, and chipilín, and edible roots such as yucca, taro, and sweet potato, among others.
A: What I like most about Red COMAL’s approach is that it promotes local organization and active participation of rural and Indigenous families, including women and youth.
They are the protagonists of their own processes of social and economic development.
Families have the freedom to express their opinions and decide what they want to produce, this is an important principle in the fight against hunger.
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