Guest Column

IN the discourse of food systems and agricultural production, the term food security has been widely used and has become a cliché. In eradicating hunger and taming poverty to improve community livelihoods and resilience, there was nothing wrong with the use of the overused term food security.

However, there have been suggestions that food security may not be quite inclusive and sustainable enough, hence the need to explore the term food sovereignty.

In this regard, how can food sovereignty be more appropriate yet both terms speak to food sufficiency?

Food security continues to be at the epicentre of sustainable livelihoods and is tied to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 (end poverty in all its forms everywhere) and 2 (end hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture).

Food security has revolutionise the food system discourse and communication with regard to food crises, recurring droughts and famines, leading to the creation of another term food insecurity.

Food security has been widely used to describe global efforts to address the problem of hunger and malnutrition.

Food sovereignty has rarely been used yet it is assumed to be the most ideal, inclusive and sustainable.

Food sovereignty is seen as, the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, hence the right for communities to define their own food and agricultural systems.

Furthermore, placing the needs and livelihoods of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.

One wonders if the coining of these