“The quest for food security can be the common thread that links the different challenges we face and helps build a sustainable future.” ~José Graziano da Silva, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General
“I’d love to see a new form of social security … everyone taught how to grow their own; fruit and nut trees planted along every street, parks planted out to edibles, every high rise with a roof garden, every school with at least one fruit tree for every kid enrolled.” ~ Jackie French, New Plants from Old
How food secure are we? Do we have food sovereignty? Are we counting as food secure the access to tomatoes and strawberries in January or being able to buy mangoes and Bananas from Equator? Or how many food-related support systems we have in the community? Or is it something else? How do we measure it in our households and communities?
SOCS, Seeds for Change Surrey started in this quest three years ago as an initiative from the Surrey and White Rock Food Action Coalition.
As part of a series of working meetings and workshops under the umbrella of Collective Impact lead by BC Healthy Communities and Innoweave, in the fall of 2015, SOCS was born.
In the upcoming weeks, we will be exploring how this working group has been addressing issues of food security and food sovereignty in our city by focusing in four pillars: Availability, Access, Income and Literacy.
We want to invite you to go deeper in the definitions of food security and food sovereignty, to send us questions and feedback and engage with us through social media.
Here are some definitions to think about:
“People are considered food secure when they have availability and adequate access at all times to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” ~ World Food Programme
FAO (Food and agricultural organization) suggests a working definition as: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of concern.”
Yet Food secure Canada adopts the Via Campesiva definition for Food Sovereignty: “Food Sovereignty is 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.” La Via Campesina
We at SOCS have created a vision that aligns with resilience and sustainability:
“SOCS envisions an integrated and resilient local food system that enables physically accessible, culturally acceptable and affordable food for everyone, supports a sustainable food economy, and empowers food literacy and capacity building within the community.”
- What does food security for you, your family and community?
- Do food security and food sovereignty differ? How?
- What are the challenges you see in your community?
- What are the possibilities?