Agency matters: Building a case for the inclusion of food sovereignty as an integral component of public health nutrition research and practice

Food security has been a dominant theme in discourses on food systems within the field of public health. While a food security framework helps us better understand how access to nutritious food impacts one’s health, it does not take into account the underlying politics, power dynamics, and history that have influenced food systems. The concept of food sovereignty, introduced by small-scale peasant farmers, is one such way to address these factors. Though there exists overlap between food security and food sovereignty, the latter promotes agency as a key component of more just and equitable food systems. Through this publication, the author considers the importance of food sovereignty in food systems work and makes a case for the inclusion of a food sovereignty approach in public health and nutrition research, practice, and discourse. The author does this through a review of the relevant literature related to food security, food sovereignty, and public health. This review is followed by an analysis of three efforts to combat food insecurity that are rooted in a food sovereignty paradigm, using a 5A’s of Food Security (5A) framework. These efforts, and others like it, show promise in effecting a paradigm shift in the way society address food insecurity and hunger. Despite lacking a wealth of empirical data linking food sovereignty approaches to improved health outcomes, these efforts have shown success in improving many proximal and distal determinants of health. The fruits of such efforts make the case for further discussion and investigation into the connections between food sovereignty and public health.Master of Public Healt