Title: Food Sovereignty, Health Sovereignty, and self-organised community viability

Authors: Ian Werkhseiser

Addresses: Michigan State University, 503 S. Kedzie Hall, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA

Abstract: Food Sovereignty is a vibrant discourse in academic and activist circles, yet despite the many shared characteristics between issues surrounding food and public health, the two are often analysed in separate frameworks and the insights from Food Sovereignty are not sufficiently brought to bear on the problems in the public health discourse. In this paper, I will introduce the concept of 'self-organised community viability' as a way to link food and health, and to argue that what I call the 'Health Security' paradigm requires a 'Health Sovereignty' response modelled on Food Sovereignty.

Keywords: self-organised communities; community viability; food sovereignty; health sovereignty; food security; health aecurity; Alma Ata; Karuk; Declaration of Nyéléni; La Via Campesina; public health; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2014.063649

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2014 Vol.15 No.2/3, pp.134 - 146

Received: 15 Jun 2013
Accepted: 17 Jan 2014
Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article