Theorising consumption in food sovereignty for inclusive food security

新自由主义粮食体系中大公司的资本积累阻碍了农民决定生产什么和如何生产的自由（Yan, 2020）。这是通过企业食品制度下的商品化、全球化和生产工业化实现的（McMichael, 2009; 2013）。粮食主权（FS）提出了另一种粮食系统模式，促进人民获得健康、文化适宜和可持续生产的食物的权利，并确定自己的粮食政策（Nyeleni, 2007）。这是基于“生产权”是农民和农民宝贵生命的核心这一前提（Bernstein, 2014）。FS抵制商品化和全球化生产体系的出口和贸易导向，以及国际金融机构推动的“自由市场”政策下的廉价进口商品的“倾销”，这导致了全球南方农民的负债、剥夺和饥饿（LVC, 2003）。因此，FS通过确保自给自足和国内自给自足的粮食，同时避免工业化农业实践造成的环境退化，并保留“农民的耕作方式”，将资本积累纳入生产者的社会再生产之下（Nyeleni, 2007）。但是，一旦获得了生产的自由，剩余的粮食应该如何分配给社会的其他人呢？首先，农民有义务生产出这样的盈余吗？虽然消费者决定吃什么的权利已经包含在FS定义中（LVC, 2003），但Bernstein（2014）认为，考虑到模型的农民取向，FS文献中没有彻底解释食物获取，特别是低收入非生产者的食物获取。Patel（2007）敦促消费者选择当地和可持续生产的食品，而不是更便宜的工业进口食品，以直接帮助小规模生产者，并指出结构变化可能需要时间。然而，这是建立在人们有能力确保他们的食物选择的假设下的，这损害了穷人的利益，他们可能被迫光顾廉价的加工食品，而牺牲当地生产商的利益来生存。这就提出了一个问题：生产者和消费者之间的关系及其相互义务应如何在FS中概念化，以包容性地解决饥饿问题？本研究旨在制定一个消费理论，以解决在FS文献中发现的差距。上述理论将作为一个案例研究地点（特别是菲律宾）制定粮食政策框架的基础。这些目标在主要研究问题中得到了阐述：如何将粮食主权中的消费概念化，以实现包容性粮食安全？为了回答这个问题，将在研究的三个主要组成部分中采用定性和定量相结合的技术：(1)理论发展；(2)菲律宾语境下的理论适用性检验；(3)社区粮食政策框架的制定。解释FS中的消费将增加现有的关于新自由主义食物系统替代方案的文献，并将有助于概念化更全面的解决饥饿问题的战略。此外，审查消费与-à-vis小农和农民所面临的不自由的关系，突出了生产者和消费者在创造公平和可持续粮食系统方面的关键关系。因此，该研究不仅有助于发展理论的进步，而且将引起政治经济学学者对超越国家和全球秩序影响的社区层面权力动态在延续和解决不平等方面的影响的关注。

Capital accumulation by big corporations in the neoliberal food system has hindered the freedom of farmers to determine what and how to produce (Yan, 2020). This has been enabled through the commodification, globalisation, and industrialisation of production under the corporate food regime (McMichael, 2009; 2013). Food sovereignty (FS) proposes an alternative food system model by promoting the right of peoples to healthy, culturally appropriate, and sustainably produced food, and to determine their own food policies (Nyeleni, 2007). This is anchored on the premise that the 'right to produce' is central to the valued life of farmers and peasants (Bernstein, 2014). FS resists the export and trade orientation of the commodified and globalised production system as well as the 'dumping' of cheap imports under the 'free market' policies facilitated by international financial institutions, which have led to indebtedness, dispossession, and hunger among farmers in the Global South (LVC, 2003). Consequently, FS subsumes capital accumulation under the social reproduction of producers by securing food for self-provisioning and domestic self-sufficiency whilst averting the environmental degradation caused by industrial agriculture practices and preserving the 'peasant way' of farming (Nyeleni, 2007). But once the freedom to produce has been secured, how should food surpluses be distributed to the rest of the community? And are farmers obligated to produce such surpluses in the first place? Whilst the right of consumers to decide what to eat has been included in the FS definition (LVC, 2003), Bernstein (2014) argues that food access, especially by low-income non-producers, has not been thoroughly explicated in the FS literature, given the peasant orientation of the model. Patel (2007) urges consumers to choose locally and sustainably produced food instead of cheaper industrial imports to directly help small-scale producers, noting that structural changes may take time to happen. This is under the assumption, however, that people have the capability to secure their food choices, undermining the poor who may be forced to patronise cheap processed food at the expense of local producers just to survive. This raises the question: how should the relationship between producers and consumers and their mutual obligations be conceptualised in FS to inclusively address hunger?This research aims to formulate a consumption theory to address the identified gap in the FS literature. The said theory will serve as basis for the development of a food policy framework for a case study site, particularly the Philippines. These aims are articulated in the primary research question: how should consumption in food sovereignty be conceptualised to achieve inclusive food security? To answer this question, a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques will be employed in the three major components of the research: (1) theory development; (2) theory applicability testing in the Philippine context; and (3) community-based food policy framework formulation. Explicating consumption in FS will add to the existing literature on neoliberal food system alternatives and will aid in the conceptualisation of a more holistic strategy to address hunger. Moreover, examining consumption vis-à-vis the unfreedoms faced by smallholder farmers and peasants highlights the crucial relationship between producers and consumers in creating an equitable and sustainable food system. Hence, the research will not only contribute to the advancement of the development theory but will also bring attention of political economy scholars to the impacts of community level power dynamics in perpetuating and addressing inequality, beyond the influence of the state and the global order.