EXPERIENCES

The National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Peoples' Organisations (FENOCIN), the NC-EL and Alfaro Federation formed an alliance focused on food sovereignty. This coalition, called La Mesa Agraria (agrarian committee), worked with Ecuador's Constitutional Assembly and drafted proposals on food sovereignty that were included in the Constitution.

On September 28, 2008, the new Constitution was approved, which, entitled 'VII', establishes a Food Sovereignty Regime to incorporate technical assistance for ecological and sustainable agriculture, to strengthen resources for peasants and to prohibit harmful biotechnology and genetically modified seeds.

Article 281 establishes 14 responsibilities of the State towards the implementation of food sovereignty:

• Promote small and medium-scale production and the social economies of the food and fishing industries.
• Adopt fiscal, tax and tariff policies to protect the food and fisheries sectors from dependence on food imports.
• Strengthen diversification and introduce green technologies in agriculture.
• Promote redistributive policies and access to productive resources such as land and water.
• Promote the recovery and preservation of agrodiversity, ancestral knowledge and the exchange of seeds.
• Ensure the development of appropriate scientific research and innovative technologies for food sovereignty.
• Strengthen the development of consumer and producer organisations and networks, as well as marketing and distribution of food to promote equity in urban and rural areas.
• Generate fair distribution and marketing systems, reduce monopolies and food speculation.
• Provide food to the victims of natural disasters without monopoly style or speculative practices.
• Acquire food and other products for social programs from smallholder networks.
• ...

The Organic Law of the Food Sovereignty Regime was approved by the National Assembly on February 17, 2009. It promotes healthier food, agroecology and ecological production and aims to avoid monocultures. The framework of the law connects agriculture, forestry and fisheries and promotes access to credit and technology for small farmers. It also develops a Consultative Council for Food Sovereignty.

Information source: Beauregard (2009) "Food policy for people: incorporating food sovereignty principles into State governance. Case studies of Venezuela, Mali, Ecuador, and Bolivia"].

However, when it comes to implementing these policies, most have been focused on supporting agribusiness production models and production chains, mainly aimed at consolidating intensive monocultures rather than Food Sovereignty.

[Source: https://addi.ehu.es/bitstream/handle/10810/28923/TESIS_LE%C3%93N_VEGA_XABIER%20ALEJANDRO.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y]