The eminent goal for the humanity is to ensure enough safe and nutritious food for everyone, i.e. to provide Food Security. However from the long term perspective this is not enough. If we consider that most of cases of famine in modern history did not happen due to insufficient food stocks. They happened because of poverty and exploitation.
In contrast to Food Security, Food Sovereignty aims to guarantee sustainable agricultural practice with respect for nature and the rights of all people without exception. It is deeply linked to fundamental questions of power and democracy. As Nettie Weibe of the Via Campesina says: “Who controls food producing resources such as land, water, seeds and genetic resources, and for what purpose? Who gets to decide what is grown, how and where it is grown and for whom? Food Sovereignty includes the necessary discourse about power, freedom, democracy, equality, justice, sustainability and culture. Food is taken out of the realm of being primarily a market commodity and re-embedded in the social, ecological, cultural and local contexts as a source of nutrition, livelihood, meaning and relationships.