Owning Seeds, Accessing Food: Biodiversity, Food Sovereignty, and Food Security

Feeding the hungry is a world problem we all want to solve. But how? Should we leave it up to big agriculture? Big government? Big philanthropy? Gloria Otieno, a development economist and food policy expert, believes local communities play a major role in their own agricultural fates. In this talk, she argues that local communities in places such as East Africa have a basic human right to decide what seeds to plant and techniques to use to ensure the long-term viability of local, regional, and even global food systems.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Arts and Humanities, the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights, and the Environmental Studies Program.