Food governance transformation: aligning food security with sustainable farming practices in developing communities

Conventional approaches used to improve farming
practices and access to food in developing communities are
underpinned by policy, technology, and the science of modernization.
The focus has been on securing a sufficient quantity
of food derived from extensive monocultures. This quantity
focus is questioned in current food security debates, and
alternative approaches are addressing the need to pay more
attention to the quality of food as a commodity, the value
chain of which should ensure the sustainability of farming
practices and the well-being of small farmers and consumers.
This article reviews agrodiversity and food sovereignty as the
representative alternative approaches, which have led to innovative
policy, technology, and science. In order to mainstream
the alternative approaches and fully align food security with
sustainable farming practices, more robust institutional innovations
are necessary. The institutional innovations need to
work to consolidate new values of food and develop the
capacity of communities to engage in transformative change
of food governance.