The food sovereignty movement calls for a
reversal of the neoliberal globalization of food, toward an
alternative development model that supports peasant production for local consumption. The movement holds an
ambiguous stance on peasant production for export markets, and clearly prioritizes localized trade. Food sovereignty discourse often simplifies and romanticizes the
peasantry—overlooking agrarian class categories and
ignoring the interests of export-oriented peasants. Drawing
on 8 months of participant observation in the Andean
countryside and 85 interviews with indigenous peasant
farmers, this paper finds that export markets are viewed as
more fair than local markets. The indigenous peasants in
this study prefer export trade because it offers a more stable
and viable livelihood. Feeding the national population
through local market intermediaries, by contrast, is perceived as unfair because of oversupply and low, fluctuating
prices. This perspective, from the ground, offers important
insight to movement actors and scholars who risk oversimplifying peasant values, interests, and actions