Oldal 205 [205]
FOOD SUPPLY AS A GLOBAL CHALLENGE 203
characterize CEE will only contribute to the capitalist accumulation processes, as
they make it possible to keep the price of wage labor low by having certain, usually
female, members of the household perform this task as invisible work (Czirfusz
et al. 2019; Smith, A. et al. 2008). A part of the food produced in the garden can
significantly reduce the food costs of the household and the surplus can be sold
on local markets or directly from the houses, generating additional income for the
backyard farmer. Since they need less technology and land, it is easier to make
small-scale food production solutions less dependent on the global market. In
small gardens and small-scale farms it is possible to practice seed sovereignty
(producing one’s own seeds), to use organic manure instead of artificial fertilizers,
and to grow more resistant species so as to avoid spraying or the use of other
chemicals. To achieve seed sovereignty in Hungary, members of the Maghaz
Network (small-scale, household gardeners and family farmers) collaborate to
collect, maintain and exchange traditional and exotic seeds (Balazs — Balogh —
Réthy 2021).
Although the current food system marginalizes them and they are under¬
researched in agrarian studies, the decreasing number of Central and Eastern
European smallholders often flourish in informal networks of reciprocity and
informal markets, which (Visser — Dorondel et al. 2019; Varga 2019) significantly
contribute to overall food production (Visser — Kurakin — Nikulin 2019; Thiemann
— Spoor 2019), to sustainability (Kiss — Bela — Bodorkés 2012; Jehliéka et al.
2019), and to social cohesion (Jehlicka et al. 2019; Varga 2019).
Summary and conclusion
This chapter explored food as a global challenge and its reformist and systemic
alternatives. Since food as a global challenge affects all parts of the world, in order
to understand and manage the challenge, it is necessary to think on a wide range of
geographical scales — on a global, continental, macro-regional, state and local level.
The two most important attempts to reform the current food system are the
solutions that emphasize the geographical proximity of the production and
consumption of food and the efforts at making cultivation technology more
environmentally friendly (and healthier). The dominant narratives of different
“eat local” campaigns, short food supply chains, local farmers’ markets, and
shopping collectives do not aim to change the system dominated by market¬
relations or the commodification of food, hence their impact remains limited.
Organic farming is the best-known, most widespread and most elaborately
developed example of making cultivation technology more environmentally
friendly. However, ecological farming often only means a technological alternative
for cultivation (for instance, the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and herbicides,
as well as fertilizers is absolutely, or largely avoided) without questioning the global
food supply chains.
Food sovereignty is a political framework which points out the systemic
challenges generated by the global food systems and seeks possibilities for resistance.
It promotes a food system in which small-scale family farmers and peasants grow
food suitable for local consumption using agroecological methods. Agroecology
is simultaneously a social movement, a set of practices which seeks an alternative