Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.

excerpted from La Via Campesina – the Declaration of Nyéléni, 2007 Forum for Food Sovereignty in Sélingué, Mali.