Food Insecurity In Guatemala Essay

872 Words2 Pages

Guatemala and the Fight for Food Nancy Rosenberger defines food sovereignty as the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food (Rosenberger, 18). She defines food security as the ability of all people to have access to a sufficient quantity of safe and nutritious food (Rosenberger, 17). This has been a problem for the people in Guatemala for many years as the country has experienced internal upheaval in the form of civil war. Thirty-six years of internal strife left the country without enough men to farm the land and the women had to take over farming in many of the Guatemalan households. Hunger and malnutrition are extremely high in Guatemala and drinking water is a problem in many areas of the country. These factors coupled with poor education for indigenous children cause a crisis for Guatemalans. According to Braun there are two types of food insecurity. The chronic food insecurity is a diet that is inadequate for long periods of time and caused by the inability of households to acquire food. …show more content…

Their initial findings were chronic malnutrition, violations of the right to food and attacks against human rights defenders are everyday events in Guatemala. The International Fact Finding Mission monitors the situation with the Food and Nutritional Laws in mind (The Right to Food in Guatemala).
Article 1 of the Food and Nutritional Law states:
“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in September 2007, contains provisions on land, natural resources and subsistence activities relevant for the realization of indigenous peoples’ right to food and food sovereignty. It also includes the protection of traditional knowledge, biodiversity and genetic resources, and sets limits to activities of third parties on the territories of indigenous communities without their consent.” (The Right to Food in

Open Document