Declaration from Social Movements/NGOs/CSOs Parallel Forum to the World Food Summit on Food Security, Rome, 2009

Food sovereignty entails transforming the current food system to ensure that those who

produce food have equitable access to, and control over, land water, seeds, fisheries and

agricultural biodiversity. All people have a right and responsibility to participate in deciding how food is produced and distributed. Governments must respect, protect and fulfil the right to food as the right to adequate, available, accessible, culturally acceptable and nutritious food.

The civil society organizations forum declares its support for the renewed Committee on World Food Security: asserting the centrality of the Right to Food as a principle to guide all elements of this Committee’s work and stressing the need of the civil society organizations forum in the dialogue process.

This forum proposes an ecological model of food provision in the framework

of food sovereignty that feeds all populations, because they prioritise feeding people locally, minimise waste and losses of food and do not create the damage caused by industrial production systems.