Beyond Global Summitry: Food Sovereignty as Localized Resistance to Globalization

Abstract

Recently there has been a marked shift reflecting increased theoretical interest and political practices embracing strategies of localism or relocalization against neoliberal globalization. Specifically, individuals, farmers, and communities embracing the framework of food sovereignty have increasingly adopted localism tactics in response to the globalization of food systems, the corporate agribusiness model, and attendant food crises. The spread of the food sovereignty concept from the global peasants' movement Vía Campesina to locales as diverse as industrial France and the rural state of Vermont in the United States demonstrates the way in which food sovereignty has been appropriated in different international settings. Additionally, the turn toward localism merits further scrutiny as a reflection of an unsettling of forms of collective resistance at a moment of structural crisis in global capitalism. Localism as an alter-globalization tactic is still overshadowed by protest summitry and large-scale mobilizations, when small-scale micro-encounters arguably are part of a growing, broader, and more nuanced process of transnational diffusion of resistances, struggles, and reformulations over sovereignty at multiple political and social scales.

Recientemente ha habido un cambio que se refleja en el incremento de un interés teórico y prácticas políticas, que incluyen estrategias de localismo o relocalización contra la globalización neoliberal. Como táctica de respuesta a los sistemas de globalización alimentaria, a los modelos agroindustriales corporativos, y a las crisis alimentarias, los individuos, agricultores y comunidades responden abogando por la soberanía alimentaria, adoptando mecanismos locales. La propagación del concepto de soberanía alimentaria que parte de movimientos globales de campesinos ‘Vía Campesina’, en lugares tan diferentes como la Francia industrial y el estado rural de Vermont en los Estados Unidos, demuestra la manera como la soberanía alimentaria se ha apropiado de diferentes ámbitos internacionales. Además, el giro hacia el localismo merece un estudio más detallado, como reflejo de formas inquietantes de resistencia colectiva, en un momento de crisis estructural del capitalismo global. El localismo como una táctica alterna a la globalización, está todavía opacado por las protestas de las cumbres y las movilizaciones a gran escala, sin embargo los micro-encuentros son sin duda, parte de un proceso creciente, más amplio y con más matices, de la difusión trasnacional de las resistencias, los conflictos y la reformulación de la soberanía, a múltiples escalas políticas y sociales.

最近有一个明显的转向，反映出以地方主义或再地方化抵制新自由主义全球化的理论兴趣和政治实践在增长。具体来说，拥护粮食主权的个人、农民和社群越来越多地采用地方化策略来应对粮食体系全球化、公司化农业经营模式化和随之而来的粮食危机等。从全球性农民运动“农民之路”到地方如工业化的法国和美国农业州佛蒙特，粮食主权这一概念广泛传播，表明其已在不同国际场合被认可。此外，在全球资本主义发生结构性危机之时，这一本土化转向作为未成形的集体抵制的一种反映，值得进一步研究。地方化作为改造全球化运动的一种策略，其作用仍然被抗议峰会和大规模群众运动所掩盖，而小规模微观层面的抵抗是正在进行中的更广泛和细微的、在诸多政治和社会层面对主权进行抵制、斗争和重建的跨国扩散过程的一部分。

Keywords:

• food sovereignty
• neoliberal globalization
• localism
• microresistance
• France
• Vermont
• global agribusiness
• alter-globalization

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the International Studies Association in 2008 and the American Political Science Association short course on food sovereignty in 2009. We thank participants or their thoughtful comments and insights. Field research was conducted in Vermont with the assistance of student researchers Dan Hock, Kelly McQuade, Derek Souza, Katherine Downs-Angus, and John Ryan, who interviewed farmers and food producers in April 2009.

Notes

Statement on People's Food Sovereignty Vía Campesina, available at http://www.foodfirst.org/wto/foodsovereignty.php

World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005 Revision. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division.

Institut National de la statistique et des Études Économique.

Ibid.

See for example, http://www.confederationpaysanne.fr/presentation_de_la_confederation_paysanne_2.php

A number of groups promoting food sovereignty are also active in campaigns around ‘peak oil’ and excessive military spending. See the Vermont Peak Oil Network at http://www.vtpeakoil.net/

Sarah Adelman (2006) summarizes the intangible sense of Vermont's distinctiveness, writing, ‘Vermont is not “Anywhere, USA,” but neither were many of these places 50 years ago. Vermont is unique because you usually know that you are in Vermont.’

See the ISE webpage for information on activism directed by the Institute at http://www.social-ecology.org/about/about-the-ise/

http://www.ruralvermont.org/aboutus.html

http://wsf2008vt.blogspot.com/2008/01/rural-vermont-organizes-hemp-week.html

Internet resources include http://www.vermontlocalvore.org and http://www.locavores.com

See the special issue of Vermont Life, ‘Our Food, Our Farmers’, Summer 2008 and see http://www.vermontfresh.net

City Market/Onion River Co-op Webpage, 2007. Available at http://www.livingnaturally.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id1.asp?storeID=3235CB944EFE407B8C5EFD3EF940AD72

http://www.clairesvt.com/