Food Democracy: Conceptual Developments and Empirical Applications

Food Democracy: Conceptual Developments and Empirical Applications

Said Alahyane, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco

After food security and food sovereignty, food democracy has emerged as a key new concept in the agricultural and food sector. It is a redefinition of the functions of food, the players in food systems, and of the agri-food model. Food democracy is seen as the demand to benefit collectively from the food system by Tim Lang, as a food political and social approach by Neva Hassanein, or as the opposite of "Big Food" by Neil Hamilton. For Dominique Paturel, it refers rather to the right to sustainable food. In practice, food democracy takes the form of citizen initiatives such as community gardens, community-supported-agriculture and food policy councils. These collective action initiatives aim to establish inclusive, sustainable food systems where citizens can once again take control of their own food. However, the intervention of consulting firms in the formulation of public policies hinders the promotion of food democracy. In many countries, agricultural and food policies are increasingly formulated by consultancies without any form of citizen participation. In Morocco, for example, its agricultural strategy for the 2008-2020 period (Green Morocco Plan) and that for the 2020-2030 period (Generation Green) were produced by Mc Kinsey and the Boston Consulting Group respectively.

This paper will examine food democracy by focusing on the following points :

-Food Democracy as a Concept: How Food Democracy is defined and approached ?

-Food Democracy in Practice: How Food Democracy is pacticed by Food Systems Actors ?

-Food Democracy and Private Sector: How does the use of Private Enterprises to formulate Agricultural Policies damage Food Democracy ?

Keywords : Food Democracy, Food Security, Agricultural Policy, Food Governance, Food Systems.