ABSTRACT
The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, Article 25(1), asserts that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing…” In spite of this, an estimated 870 million people do not have enough food to meet their needs and suffer from chronic undernourishment (UNFAO 2013). The vast majority of people suffering from hunger and hunger-related causes live in the least developed countries, and the majority of people suffering from hunger in either the global North or South live in poverty. Many of those in the global South are landless former peasants or farmers struggling to live off the exports of commodities to the global North. Food sovereignty is an emergent discourse and politics that engages directly with the failure of food security measures to address hunger. It is also a narrative that supports the subverting of the neoliberal agricultural systems which ultimately work to immiserate farmers.
