Looking for new trends and good practices beyond borders: key take aways from an event in Ljubljana

What does it mean to be truly self-sufficient in an era of cascading climate and geopolitical crises? This critical question took center stage at the recent International Summer School of Political Ecology in Ljubljana. 

What does it mean to be truly self-sufficient in an era of cascading climate and geopolitical crises? This critical question took center stage at the recent International Summer School of Political Ecology in Ljubljana. Amid intense debates on the future of our green transition, one core tension emerged that reshaped how we think about social innovation and agriculture: the distinction between food sufficiency and food sovereignty.

While food sufficiency often focuses on a technical or national metric—simply securing enough food and material production within geographic borders—speakers at the summer school warned that it can easily be co-opted. Isolated sufficiency can lead to top-down, corporate-led, or protectionist strategies that replicate extractive capitalism under a "green" banner.

In contrast, food sovereignty turns food into a site of democratic empowerment. It insists that the people who produce, distribute, and consume food should control the mechanisms and policies of food systems, rather than allowing global markets and corporations to dictate terms.

A Beacon of Global Resistance: La Via Campesina

A powerful real-world example of this struggle highlighted during the event is La Via Campesina. Founded in 1993, this massive international grassroots movement coordinates 182 organizations, mainly small scale farmers, across 81 countries, giving a unified global voice to small- and medium-scale producers, peasant farmers, rural women, and indigenous communities.

The summer school had the privilege of hosting Morgan Ody, the General Coordinator of La Via Campesina and a practicing vegetable peasant farmer from Brittany, France. Ody has spent over fifteen years organizing on the frontlines for land access and agricultural justice.

During her session, Ody brought the theoretical debate down to earth with a clear message. She emphasized that the global food crisis is not a crisis of scarcity, but of power, stressing:

"Peasant agriculture is not a relic of the past; it is the blueprint for our collective future. True food sovereignty requires structural land reform and a complete break from free-market dynamics that treat food as a commodity rather than a human right."

Ody reminded participants that the real power of the peasantry lies in its translocal solidarity—connecting immediate, local community care with an uncompromising internationalist struggle against agricultural extractivism.

Stay tuned

The rich discussions generated during the summer school are too vital to be left in the lecture halls. To help our community digest these ideas and apply them to social innovation projects across Europe, the organizers of the summer school are processing additional multimedia resources and we will soon update this article with links to podcasts recorded during the event, as well as the full video of Morgan Ody’s inspiring interview. These resources will dive deeper into how grassroots networks can build autonomous, non-hierarchical alternatives to the industrial food system.

More info about the International Summer School of Political Ecology and the speakers are here: https://www.politicalecology-ljubljana.si/en/

More info about La Via Campesina is here: https://viacampesina.org/en/

For further discussion on the topic please write to Coordinator of SozialMarie in Slovenija: ziva.lopatic@sozialmarie.org