Food Security
As defined at the World Food Summit 1996, food security exists "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life".
Human Right to Food
The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone and in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1999: para. 6.)
Food System
According to Rastoin and Ghersi (2010:19), food systems can be regarded as “interdependent networks of stakeholders (companies, financial institutions, public and private organizations, and individuals) in a geographical area (region, state, multinational region) that participate directly or indirectly in the creation of flows of goods and services geared towards satisfying the food needs of one or more groups of consumers in the same geographical area or elsewhere”. We extend the definition of stakeholders to explicitly include farmers and consumers.
Food Sovereignty
The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems (Nyéléni Declaration 2007).
Food Sustainability
We suggest a definition of food sustainability that is based on five principles: (1) food security; (2) the right to food and other related human rights; (3) the reduction of poverty and inequality; (4) environmental performance; and (5) social-ecological resilience (Figure 1). We further believe that these basic variables for assessing food sustainability must remain consistent with more general principles of sustainable development, such as democratic participation in food system governance, economic viability, and intergenerational equity in both the short- and the long-term.
