We shall rebel! Women Challenge Food Systems Worldwide

In today’s context of rising hunger and ecological collapse, women and all those who seek to reimagine food, environment and economies, face ever-increasing attacks. This edition of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch is timely and necessary: the authors address key issues of power, and expose the structural violence that degrades both women and the environment.

Paradoxically, women make up the bulk of food producers worldwide and yet they are disproportionately affected by hunger. What’s more, this remains widely unrecognized. While it is true that women’s experiences and access to food are not only shaped by their gender, but also by their race, class and sexual orientation, all women are affected by violence. In some places, they are underrepresented and erased from food policies, research and data. In other cases, women’s food and bodily autonomy are limited by authoritarianism and religious conservatism. Across the world, women are exploited and dispossessed from their land and resources.

Yet, against all odds, as this Watch abundantly shows, women are organizing, mobilizing and exercising their autonomy worldwide. In the fields of Mali and India, women are growing nutritious food in a socially and environmentally just manner. In the streets of Brazil, they are demonstrating against agribusiness violence thanks to the March of Daisies. Women migrating from Central to North America are facing up to adversity, whilst in Jinwar in Northern Syria, they are building a new society and growing food collectively. At the global level, women are influencing international decision-making at the UN Committee on World Food Security.

This edition is the result of a collective reflection process driven by women. Here, authors call out on food and feminist movements, which are as diverse as their struggles and political backgrounds, to build alliances and join the discussion to advance the rights of women, including young women and girls. Their mission is to create just food systems.

In the face of multiple crises, the power of individual and collective women’s resistance ¬to lead the way towards better social and ecological relations cannot be understated.

You can access the publication and the supplement here
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Note to editors: For the second consecutive year, the publication will be released together with a supplement that offers a succinct and visual overview of the key messages of this issue.