Constructing Food Citizenship: Theoretical Premises and Social Practices

Abstract

The reflection on food citizenship becomes pertinent if we take into account the importance of food and nourishment as constituting that which is social, its economic relevance, its globalized character, the fact that it is a highly regulated sector, and the important risks related to food. This context justifies, as well as conditions, the possibilities and difficulties of the emergence of a food citizenship. The framework establishes the expressive dimensions and the spheres of praxis of food citizenship and of the construction of the policies that facilitate the emergence and consolidation of this new space in which to exercise citizenship.

In this paper, we will propose a concept of food citizenship based on the general concept of citizenship and of its connection to other similar concepts from which it must be differentiated and with which it must be related. This concept is based on the acknowledgement of rights –to food and to information about food- and of obligations, in private and public behavior, in political participation, in justice, and in cosmopolitanism.