The aim is to promote reflection and debate on the concept of food sovereignty, its relevance and its limitations through:

• Achieving a first note of the issue highlighting key points of debate on issues of food sovereignty.
• The collect of a series of written contributions collected from persons with a reflection and experience on these issues, at the international level.
• Starting from these contributions will be made a document and an executive summary.
  The establishment of a validation workshop of the contents of the document.
• The production of the final document in order to edit it and put it online.

Eleven years after the Declaration of the World Food Summit in Rome, which was defined the concept of food security, and while world food production is sufficient to properly feed all of humanity, it is necessary to continue questioning. There is indeed a marked worsening of the food situation of more than two billion human beings. Half of this population is hungry, including farmers and producers living in countries where inequalities are the strongest, and the other half suffers from obesity consequence of an

overfeeding, mainly in countries where the average income is high .

The emergence of the concept of "food sovereignty", in reply to the world food order and chosen as slogan by the alter-globalisation movement, enable to better clarify the issues?

Food sovereignty is often defined as "the right of each nation to decide its agricultural and food policy based on the optimal satisfaction of its needs." Taken to its extreme, this definition makes self-sufficiency in priority in national economic and social policies. But beyond its role as disruptive - healthy and necessary function as the scandal of hunger and obesity continues - the concept of food sovereignty raises many questions.

1. Is it desirable to address the food issue only at the range of nations?
2. Should we oppose at international food trade and advocating retreat on its own national food culture?
3. Self-sufficiency is it possible everywhere?
4. What lessons should we draw from national agricultural policies carried out until our days, while the world food crisis grows?
5. What do these countries, who loudly proclaim their commitment to food sovereignty, do for their own farmers, food producers, could emerge from poverty?
6. What joints between the different levels - local, national, regional and global - are needed to better feed the world?

Faced with this challenge of the right to food for all, the construction of a legitimate and effective global governance is an urgent priority. Faced with increasing inter-dependence between companies and between humanity and the biosphere, it is necessary to build appropriate regulations at all levels. Current regulations are not up to the problems to be solved. The low legitimacy of existing institutions and their effectiveness sometimes questionable, do little to strengthen their powers. A huge effort of the imagination and innovation is absolutely necessary.

Several countries have already or are about to enter the food sovereignty in their Constitution. Debating therefore on the nature and modalities of the implementation of new food and agricultural policies to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Documents of interest:

This initiative gives rise to a depth work of documentation:

• 17 "fundamental" books collected since early 2008
• 12 Films and shorts screened
• collect of 100 new Internet bookmarks in addition to the 700 existing
• 170 electronic documents in addition to a collection of several hundred reports and books.

Relations with other allies:

CAFOLIS, process of the Constituent Assembly in Ecuador
AGTER, thinking about the link between land and food