Abstract

Using case studies of the home-grown school feeding programs in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Brazil, this paper investigates the puzzle of these different countries creating the same program, but from very different theoretical frameworks. In Brazil, the program is framed as a food sovereignty program, while in the African countries it is framed as a food security program. This paper argues that the difference in program framing is due to the presence or absence of farmer’s organizations tightly connected to the government, the level of a countries’ commitment to the global human rights regime, and the level of influence of international development organizations. Further, this paper argues that those countries which have embraced food sovereignty for their feeding programs are more successful because the food sovereignty framework focuses attention on local, small-scale farmers and individual’s access to food, whereas the food security framework focuses attention on larger agri-business and a countries’ integration into the global economy.