Food Sovereignty and Local Communities
Michèle Companion discusses the importance of food sovereignty for indigenous populations globally, emphasizing control over what you eat and grow for long-term health benefits. Colonized food systems lead to food oppression, limiting choices and causing health issues like diabetes and hypertension.
Traditional diets, rich in nutrients, promote better health. Companion highlights the importance of communities controlling their food systems, accessing traditional seeds and local food production technologies, which can lead to increased food self-sufficiency, especially for low-income or isolated populations.
Nations that control their food systems see improved health outcomes, such as reduced weight gain and decreased reliance on medications, freeing up income for other needs. Food sovereignty also involves rejecting heavily processed foods in favor of culturally appropriate choices.
In emergency food aid and disaster relief, Companion stresses the need to tailor aid to local cultures, ensuring it is palatable and recognizable. She advocates for a bottom-up, participatory approach to humanitarian aid, working with communities rather than imposing top-down models.
Companion calls for consistently recognizing cultural and biological needs in food aid programs, viewing food as a fundamental human right and addressing the broader cultural context in collaboration with communities.
Speaker Biography
Michèle Companion is a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado–Colorado Springs. She is a humanitarian aid response coordinator specializing in food and livelihood security. Companion has served as a consultant for U.S. and international humanitarian aid organizations, engaging in all phases of disaster risk reduction, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Her work includes helping governments and communities create, implement, and assess programming that addresses United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
She works with Indigenous populations around the globe and Native American nations and tribes on issues of food security, food sovereignty, and cultural survival around livelihood preservation and access to traditional food and medicine, especially in the face of climate change. Companion conducts workshops and training on the utility of blending traditional ecological knowledge and site mapping techniques to empower communities. Also, she is the secretary of the Lowlander Center, working with southern Louisiana tribes and other groups impacted by sea level rise, chair of the International Coordinating Committee for the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, and president of the International Research Committee on Disasters.
