Global Developments and Sustainable Agriculture: Exploring Opportunities in Food Security Policy

Food security is generally defined as having an adequate supply of and access to nutritious food. Some have broadened this definition to incorporate principles of sustainable agriculture, referred to here as community food security (CFS). Given increasing threats to food security, many of which also threaten ecological well being and increase inequality, it makes sense to consider this broader definition when developing solutions for hunger and malnutrition. But to what degree is CFS incorporated within food security policy? Are organizations promoting CFS incorporating emerging threatsto food security into their policy work? Does this influence their power in policy making? How do those suffering from hunger and malnutrition experience CFS? How does this influence the incorporation of CFS into the policy making process?

This paper examines theoretical insights which elucidate the ways in which CFS is, and could further be, incorporated within food security policy making. I review scholarship suggesting that policies are the outcomes of interests, institutions and ideas(Campbell 2002; Anderson 2008), that examines the degree to which alternative agro-food movements act as a counter-force to the global agro-food system (Hinrichs 2003; DeLind 2010), that examines the power of consumers to engage as political actors (Goodman and DuPuis 2002; Allen 2008), as well as important insights from feminists who theorize on women’s centrality in food provisioning (DeVault 1991). Together, these contributions provide a robust theoretical lens in which to view CFS in food security policy, and the role CFS plays in contemporary global food issues.