ABSTRACT
Moreover, achieving national self-reliance in food availability depends not only on overcoming small farmer production constraints. It also depends on what the farmers choose to do.
4. The right of democratic choice
The food sovereignty vision gives considerable weight to democratic choice and debate. Of course all choices can be structurally constrained by the economic, political and social limitations within which they are exercised. Nevertheless, the 2002 definition (as noted above) at least allows scope for individual choice, recognizing that people can be self-sufficient to the extent they wish to be. The 2007 definition, however, focuses more on collective processes of democratic deliberation and consensus building. Both issues – consensus building and individual choice – are little addressed in practice.
