Food Sovereignty: Food for the People, by the People

By: SHILOH MAPLES

While in graduate school, a professor told me that I was “fixated on food” and that social work had more serious issues to address. I respectfully disagreed. Thankfully, I was not dissuaded from examining issues of food justice and sovereignty. Since that time, my passion and commitment to a more equitable food system has only grown. For the past several years, I have coordinated Sacred Roots, a food sovereignty initiative at American Indian Health & Family Services in southwest Detroit.

But what is food sovereignty and why does it matter?

Who decides how your food is produced and distributed? Who determines wages of laborers and the value of our food? What are the rights of undocumented workers? Who has access to land and water? Who gets approved for start-up loans? Who determines whether the food you can access is appropriate for your culture, religion, lifestyle, and health? Are these decisions made by farmers, restaurant workers, or the consumer—or by large businesses and multinational corporations?

These are the questions that food sovereignty looks to answer—and the answers are critical issues of human rights.

As an indigenous woman, nutrition educator, grower, and community organizer—it has become quite clear to me what happens when people lose access to land, food, and lifeways. Colonization is a classic example of the concentration of power and how much damage is done when people are removed from the decision-making process. For hundreds of years, indigenous people have been forcibly removed from their homelands and pushed to assimilate into mainstream society. As a part of colonization, indigenous people were separated from traditional foodways and forced into mainstream labor and society. While some would be more comfortable believing these injustices are old history, these policies left deep disparities in community health, suppressed local economies, and impoverished generations.

These are now contemporary battles for our human rights to be recognized.

The term food sovereignty was first coined in 1996 by La Via Campesina—a global coalition representing small-scale, women, and indigenous growers. The international food sovereignty movement defends the rights of the people who produce, distribute, and consume the food to determine the policies and conditions that shape the global food system. At its heart, food sovereignty shifts decision-making power from food giants to everyday people—making the food system more equitable and democratic.

Overtime, industrial agriculture and multinational companies have concentrated the decision-making power, land, and wealth within the global food system. As these industries maximize profit and production, it has become increasingly difficult for everyday people to make a living wage, access or maintain land ownership, and for all communities to access healthy culturallyappropriate foods. It’s a narrow viewpoint to boil these issues down to solely economic concerns, because for millions of everyday people, these struggles are core to their survival and human rights.

People don’t need to be saved or rescued, they need the world to acknowledge their rights, collective power, and expertise. The food sovereignty movement recognizes the dignity and worth of everyday people, our labor, and the essential roles that we play in our food system. But if we want to reap the rewards of self-governance, then we need to take on the responsibility of governing. We have to create a shared vision of the future, make plans, and work together to build the life we want.

Shiloh Maples is the Program Manager for Food Sovereignty & Wellness Initiatives at American Indian Health & Family Services in southwest Detroit. She has a passion for heritage foods and strives to preserve them by sharing recipes, stories, and saving seeds. Learn more about her organization at www.aihfs.org.