Drafting a Law, Dissolving a Proposal: Food Sovereignty and the State in Ecuador

Upon being sworn in as the 56th Ecuadorian President on 15 January 2007, Rafael Correa immediately convened, through a referendum, a National Constituent Assembly to draw up a new constitution. One of the concerns of the assembly was to translate into law a food-sovereignty proposal put forward by social movements. In the process of becoming law, the food-sovereignty proposal was much changed. How is it possible that the final version, the law, so far fell short of the food-sovereignty movement’s original proposal? Addressing this question implies a reflection on the role of the state. We argue that (a) instead of strengthening the role of peasants, their participation was reduced to a bureaucratic structure (a ‘council’) that lacked the capacity to define or implement policies, and (b) the issue of the social function of land and land-reform was removed. I therefore conclude that the social movements’ proposal for food sovereignty was stripped of its essentials.