Building social muscle to transform food systems

In the face of growing inequality and ecological crisis, the global peasant movement, La Vía Campesina, has put forward the idea of food sovereignty as a way to transform the corporate controlled food system (Box 1). This proposal puts control over the decisions about how food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed back into the hands of small-scale food producers and local communities. To do this, diverse examples of initiatives pushing for change, from small-scale agroecological farms, to local food networks, to neighborhood pantries, have popped up throughout Europe. Now, peasant organizations and allies have increasingly directed energy towards influencing public policies as a way of linking together and scaling up potential for social transformation. This report explores some historical examples of social movements channeling their energy for change towards public policy in Europe in order to draw out some relevant insights. Next, it highlights some of the specific local policy areas that social movements are proposing as essential to food sovereignty. Examples from different parts of Europe show some of the ways these policy ideas are being put into practice.