Beyond Reform: Food Sovereignty and the Future of Global Food Systems

Originally aired February 13, 2025

We live in a deeply destructive food system, and the need for alternatives is clear. Yet state and corporate actors, beholden to an extractive, industrial model of food production, continue to push for incremental reforms instead of transformative action. In response, food sovereignty movements are charting a normative path in international human rights law to secure peasants’ rights and promote more sustainable and just alternatives to our industrial food system. Against the backdrop of the political economy of industrial agriculture, this talk compares mainstream approaches to food systems reform with transformative alternatives rooted in food sovereignty. It explores two key questions: What makes a food practice transformative? And how are social movements and advocates using international law to advance transformative practices and secure peasants’ rights? The talk is based on Professor Smita Narula’s recent article on the subject. Watch the recording.