Advancing towards food sovereignty in El Alto, Bolivia: revitalizing the consumption of native, nutritious and agro-ecological food in urban centers

Most field research on food sovereignty focuses on food production, circulation and consumption systems in rural communities and on the role of local organizations in sustaining local food systems, livelihoods and the environment. This thesis takes the question of food sovereignty into an urban, consumer-focused context in El Alto, a large city in Bolivia where traditional diets, based on foods of plant origin and low meat consumption, have been replaced by energy dense foods, the so-called “nutrition transition”. This thesis presents food sovereignty as a strategy to counteract the “nutrition transition” in El Alto. The thesis examines the local and structural factors that affect the viability of revitalizing the consumption of native, nutritious and agro-ecological food in the schools of El Alto.