Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

food security and food sovereignty: production, development, trade
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Food Security and Food Sovereignty:
Production, Development, Trade
Summary by Rebecca Reider
Panelists:
Kristin Dawkins
Vice President for International Programs, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Minor Sinclair
Director of U.S. Programs, Oxfam America, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Silvia Rodríguez
President of the Board, Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), Member of
the Coordinating Network on Biodiversity, San José, Costa Rica
Alberto Gómez Flores
National Executive Coordinator, Unión Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales
Campesinas Autónomas (UNORCA), Mexico; Coordinator of North American region,
Vía Campesina
Moderator:
Steven Stoll
Steven Stoll, History and American Studies, Yale University
As moderator Steven Stoll, associate professor of history and American studies at Yale
University, noted, this group of presentations demonstrated that whereas
“sovereignty” was once the domain of nation-states, it is now the domain of
corporations. Corporations are breaking down political borders through their
control of international trade, and even breaking down biological borders through
the production of genetically modified organisms. Meanwhile, the panelists called for
a different kind of sovereignty: food sovereignty, defined by the international farmers’
movement Vía Campesina as “the right of each nation and its peoples to maintain
and develop its own capacity to produce the people’s basic food, while respecting
yale school of forestry & environmental studies