Localised food systems provide the foundations of  people’s nutrition, incomes, economies,
ecologies and culture throughout the world. In this way food is primarily sold, processed,
resold  and  consumed  locally,  with  many  people  deriving  their  incomes  and  livelihoods
through work and activities at different points of  the food chain, from seed to plate. These
local  food  systems  provide  a  livelihood  for  more  than  2.5  billion  small-scale  farmers,
pastoralists, forest dwellers and artisanal fisherfolk worldwide.
However, despite their current role in and future potential for meeting human needs and
sustaining diverse ecologies, local food systems—and the organisations that govern them—
are  threatened  by  two  main  processes.  The  first  is  the  global  restructuring  of   agri-food
systems, with a few transnational corporations gaining monopoly control over different links
in  the  food  chain.  This  process  is  undermining  local  people’s  capacity  for  autonomy  and
self-determination.  The  second  threat  is  the  modernist  development  agenda  pursued  by
organisations  such  as  the  World  Bank  and  the  Gates  Foundation.  This  agenda  envisages
achieving the Millennium Development Goals by reducing the number of  people engaged
in  food  production  and  instead  encouraging  them  to  get  jobs  in  the  largely  urban-based
manufacturing and service sectors—regardless of  the social and ecological costs.
The  food  sovereignty  movement  has  emerged  as  a  reaction  to  this  situation.  It  aims  to
guarantee and protect people’s space, ability and right to define their own models of  food
production,  distribution  and  consumption.  The  concept,  and  the  struggle  to  achieve  it,  is
bringing  together  farmers,  indigenous  peoples,  pastoralists  and  all  manner  of   rural  and
urban groups from both the South and the North.