¡El hambre no espera!: The Role of Radical Food Sovereignty Movements in Reshaping our Food Systems

Abstract

Food sovereignty movements have emerged worldwide in response to social, economic, and environmental crises brought on by the dominant corporate food regime. One especially important moment was the 2007-2008 world food price crisis. While some movements seek to operate within the framework of neoliberal food systems to address present and urgent issues such as hunger, food insecurity, and environmental degradation, other, more “radical” movements aim to reshape food systems through profound social change. This can include structural reforms to market and property regimes, as well as class-based redistributive demands for resources and land. This paper focuses on approaches to food sovereignty in the Global South, specifically the social advancements of the transnational movement “La Via Campesina.” Ongoing examination and scholarly debate of the internal structures and actions of La Via Campesina and its sub movements sometimes call into question their efficacy in generating desired social change. Utilizing specific examples from the Mexican food sovereignty movement “Sin Maíz no Hay País,” this paper asserts that radical food sovereignty movements have the power to generate meaningful systemic change to food regimes at the local level, but struggle to do so as effectively on national and global scales.