We have been taught to measure the strength of a food system in tonnes: how much it produces, imports, and exports. But producing more does not necessarily mean nourishing people better.
The more important question is who decides what reaches the table.
Latin America and the Caribbean produce enough food for nearly 1.3 billion people, more than twice the region’s population. Yet 22.9 percent of its residents experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. This contradiction is why food sovereignty matters.
Food sovereignty is the right of people and communities to influence what is grown, how it is produced, which seeds are protected, and who benefits from the food system. A country may export enormous quantities of food while depending on imports to feed its own population. Supermarkets can appear abundant even as traditional crops disappear and farmers and fishers struggle to earn fair prices.
Food sovereignty does not mean closing borders or producing everything locally. It means protecting the capacity to make choices, supporting local production, and reducing vulnerability to climate, economic, and international crises.
For gastronomy, this means safeguarding native seeds, land, water, inherited knowledge, and the dignity of those who work the land and sea. A seed is more than a crop. It carries memory, identity, autonomy, and future possibility.
A cuisine cannot remain truly its own if it loses the territory and knowledge that gave it life.
Sources: FAO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026; FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; Declaration of Nyéléni.
