Speaker
Description
Islands and archipelagos are often considered as laboratories, with their apparent isolation deemed to be an ideal condition for research. But their isolation is as much a social construction as a reality. Cabo Verde (CV), an island nation in the Atlantic, off Western Africa and a former Portuguese colony, since the beginning of its inhabitation has been shaped by its connections with other places. An arid archipelago with limited agricultural potential – and a colonial history of non-exploitation of this potential –, CV has suffered over centuries from cyclical droughts, the absence of effective policies to guarantee food security by Portugal and mortal famines as a consequence. Since shortly before their independence, the islands have greatly benefited from large investments in food imports which today cover 85-90% of demand, achieving a socio-economic condition in which hunger since 1949, is not, any more, a recurring phenomenon. At the same time, CV’s greater social well-being depends on processes of global development and economic growth – e.g., a global food system – which are at the basis of the global socio-ecological crisis which today again threatens not only CV’s food security. The article explores this contradictory situation, scrutinising the meaning of concepts like food sovereignty and food security, the role of local production and food trade, in the context of CV’s condition of interconnected islandness.
| Keywords | food system; spatial relationality; trade; food sovereignty; islands |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
