ABSTRACT
The ideals of food security and, to a lesser extent, food sovereignty, have taken tangible and practical form only relatively recently in Alberta, Canada (Growing Food Security in Alberta, n.d.). Their advocates continue to seek methods for gaining legitimacy and traction in a province whose economy and provincial identity are heavily reliant on export-oriented, industrial agriculture. This chapter analyses the potential to employ a food-sovereignty discourse for strategic coalition-building between anti-poverty and pro-food security groups and other similarly aligned organizations and individuals in the City of Lethbridge in Southern Alberta. It asks if it is possible, in the spirit of Gibson-Graham (2006), to use food sovereignty to create a new discursive frame for food production and consumption, poverty and the local economy, as well as a way to enhance the interconnectivity of people in and around Lethbridge. This process may contribute to the creation of new community subjects with transformed and transforming knowledges, capacities, and values. I argue that a locally embedded food sovereignty discourse has the potential to be used to coalesce around and unify disparate community stakeholders and programs to foster a flexible and pragmatic alternative food system and community-oriented economy in Lethbridge. However, there are a number of challenges to implementing a locally situated food sovereignty in this region, specifically related to the power and perceived inevitability of the (neo)liberal state, that must be elaborated upon.
