Food sovereignty

Definition

The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound methods.

Ethical Language Guidance

Gender History

Food sovereignty discourse, emerging from peasant movements, emphasizes communities' right to define food systems; gender has been a secondary concern, though women comprise the majority of food producers and are most vulnerable to system dispossession.

Inclusive Usage

Use 'food sovereignty' while explicitly centering women's land rights, seed autonomy, and decision-making power—food sovereignty without gender sovereignty is incomplete.

Empowerment Note

Food sovereignty movements increasingly recognize that women's control over seeds, knowledge, and land is foundational to food system resilience and cultural continuity; this represents maturation of the concept.

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