Sustainable food systems, gender, and participation: Foregrounding women in the context of the right to adequate food and nutrition

This chapter is guided by the argument that there is a need to integrate gender, nutrition, and the human right to food as well as to promote interscalar governance strategies in support of sustainable livelihoods with enhanced food and nutrition security. This integration can be achieved by promoting local agriculture and food systems, in line with a food sovereignty approach. As outlined in chapters 2 and 4 of this volume, this chapter addresses our concerns with the dominant view that the state and international market systems provide the best or only reasonable support for food security and nutritional well-being and, further, that international distribution and trade of highly technical food production and medicalized food assistance provide the most appropriate response to food insecurity and malnutrition. We claim that these positions foster economic dependency and overlook the capacity for self-determination and for establishing sustainable local and regional food systems that promote nutrition and health.