Buen Provecho: The strategies of participation and construction in Peruvian food policy

Food security and food sovereignty are being integrated into policy frameworks around the world, predominantly in the countries of Latin America. In 2013, Peru was on the cusp of approving a national policy and national law relating to food security and food sovereignty. Engaging food regime analysis as introduced by Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael to historicize the political economy of the global food system, I document how food sovereignty challenges the neoliberal policy paradigm in Peru and simultaneously risks cooptation into the neoliberal food regime, arguing that the final result of food sovereignty being excluded from any officially approved law in Peru represents the preservation of food sovereignty's radical nature and resistance to cooptation. Using the theory of "neoliberal multiculturalism" by Charles Hale, I show that the strategies of participation and construction used in the Peruvian food policy-making process open new alternatives beyond the assumed binary of cooptation or resistance in the institutionalization of a social movement platform. This thesis, developed in the midst of the policy debate in Peru, is a timely and relevant study that has implications for food policy processes around the world. With the emergence of more initiatives in Latin America and beyond to institutionalize the food sovereignty framework into national policy, careful analysis of the risks, challenges, and opportunities of doing so will inform future efforts.