Authors : Arry Bainus and D. Yulianti
Abstract: Indonesia is a portrait of irony. Despite its tropical climate, abundant rainfall and fertile soil, it is one of the biggest food-importing countries. This reality urges many Civil Society Organizations (CSO) to fight for the so called "food sovereignty". We found that although they have been promoted food sovereignty at least for 17 years (since post-authoritarian era of Soeharto), still the issue merely part of the rhetoric of Indonesian government. By conducting in-depth interviews with 5 CSOs and doing literature research, we found the power of big food corporations over the government is bigger than the CSOs’ influence and the CSOs still have not developed a detailed, concrete, scalable and accredited proposal yet to be submitted to all level of agricultural programme executors, mainly the local governments.
Arry Bainus and D. Yulianti, 2016. Civil Society and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Indonesia. The Social Sciences, 11: 4998-5005.