The Ethics of Food Security vs. Food Sovereignty: Whose Nutritional Priorities Matter Most?

By Muskaan Toshniwal

When it comes to solving world hunger, we often hear the terms food security and food sovereignty, but what do they actually mean? And more importantly, how do they differ? These two ideas may sound like they’re working toward the same goal—ensuring that people have enough to eat—but they come from very different places. Food security focuses on meeting immediate nutritional needs on a global scale, while food sovereignty centers around local control over food systems [1]. The ethical question is this: should we prioritize the world’s hunger crisis or empower local communities to decide their own food destiny?