Two key concepts for rural and social development in Colombia

Food security and food sovereignty are two concepts that must be understood under the realities of climate change and global economic fluctuations.

Food safety

Food security was first discussed in 1996 at the World Food Summit, an event that arose out of global concern about chronic malnutrition and the limited capacity of agriculture to meet long-term food demands.

Food security exists when everyone has physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, which in turn meets dietary needs and preferences for a healthy life. However, it can be threatened by import dependency, droughts and floods, and economic factors (such as inflation and unemployment).

In Colombia, there is Social CONPES 113 of 2008 (National Food and Nutritional Security Policy), which complies with the commitments made at the 1996 Summit. This CONPES is the creator of the National Plan for Food and Nutritional Security - PNSAN- (2012-2019) and the Intersectoral Commission for Food and Nutritional Security. Both strategies have originated in order to address the challenges that deficiencies in agricultural infrastructure and poverty (rural and urban) present.

The efforts regulated by the PNSAN focus on proper nutrition, improved breastfeeding, social and community participation, the design of nutritional education strategies, and the sustainable use of Colombia's wild species, among other lines of action. However, as long as the country maintains an unequal distribution of land ownership, limited access to health care by region and a constant strengthening of monocultures and imports, it will be a titanic task to preserve food security.

Food security accepts agro-industrial and large-scale agriculture: mechanisms that may not always be beneficial for small and medium-scale farmers, due to the increase in monocultures (which have unfavorable social and environmental costs) and the negative effects they have on collective rights, rural property and socio-cultural traditions.

Food sovereignty

It is understood as the right of a country to define its own sustainable food production, distribution and consumption policies and strategies that guarantee the right to healthy and nutritious food for the entire population, respecting its own cultures and the diversity of production, marketing and management systems in rural areas (FAO).

This concept prioritizes food as a necessity and a right: people can demand the conditions to consume nutritious food corresponding to local traditions and cultures, deciding on their own food and production system.

Food sovereignty encourages organic production and small-scale agriculture. Initiatives such as family farming, regional development (with local markets to shorten distances and marketing costs) and agri-food alternatives (mixed crop strategies, family gardens) and non-agri-food alternatives (such as rural tourism, forestry production and generation of environmental services), are part of the efforts that local communities can make to strengthen their sovereignty.

Both concepts can be complementary when it comes to achieving rural development; however, in vulnerable and unequal contexts such as the Colombian countryside, it is recommended that small-scale agriculture be strengthened because it allows families to be supplied with the products they sell in the agricultural market while respecting the traditions of peasants, indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants. To this end, it is essential to solve the unequal distribution of land in Colombia and put an end to large estates, update the rural cadastre and develop productive processes that strengthen local trade.

The search for food security and sovereignty can only have satisfactory results as long as state efforts are united with the interests of large and small traders, always seeking equity and social development and respecting the traditions that communities have in relation to land and food production and marketing.