Food sovereignty

This book examines the impacts of agriculture and food development policies for food security in Timor-Leste. Through the adoption of a critical political economy perspective, it undertakes an historical analysis of the causes of food insecurity. It then explores food sovereignty as a possible pathway for rebuilding the current food system, particularly in the context of climate change. This approach contributes to extending sociological understandings of, and responses to, food insecurity in Timor-Leste; representing a departure from many earlier studies, which have centrally focused upon technical barriers to food security. Based on in-depth fieldwork over 10 months, it argues the root cause of food insecurity in Timor-Leste is directly tied to political failures in agri-food development policies. Informed by food sovereignty, and broader deliberative governance thinking, this book concludes by arguing that rebuilding of the current food system will require cooperation between different stakeholders, as well as land and policy reform, to create the basis for a sustainable, fair and just national food system in the context of climate change for Timor-Leste.