Voices and Flavours from the Earth: Visualising Food Sovereignty in the Andes, Chapter 1

Chapter 1. Thinking and acting from the field. A participatory process is a space where multiple voices interact: that is the core of this documentation. The writer created a frame for the Andean farmers at the heart of this process to express their ideas. It is these individuals who have determined the direction and the contents of the words and graphic representations embodying the strong culinary cultures which inspire their actions in defence of food sovereignty.

Since June 2008, farmers from three ecological zones in the southern Peruvian Andes have been reflecting upon their food cultures and transforming their ideas into innovative actions related to food sovereignty as part of a global initiative supported by the IIED involving rural communities in India, Mali and Iran. The initiative is embedded in a participatory action research (PAR) process called ‘Democratising the governance of food and agricultural systems: Citizens rethinking food and agricultural research for the public good’. Each partner was invited to design and construct deliberative and inclusive processes by which individuals and communities can gain voice and access to healthy, sufficient and nutritious food, by practising the citizens/producers’ right to define the quality and diversity of agricultural produce in accord with their cultural and economic conditions.