Food sovereignty is defined as the right that people have to organise and provide for themselves in a sustainable and ecological way, prioritizing local economies. It locates producers, distributors and consumers at the heart of food systems and food politics, above the demands of markets and the industry in general.

In Gipuzkoa, the government aims to favour agricultural policies that give flexibility to current legislation, which currently favors large producers, and the industry and generally causes difficulties to small farmers. The director of Agriculture and Rural development, Mr. Koldo Lizarralde, advocates a cooperation between the Basque Government and the three Provincial Councils to achieve a new legal framework for the small farmer with a global approach that involves production, elaboration and sales. That is why it also requires a definition of what constitutes a small producer, and who it is applicable to. For example, specialists from the Provincial Councils went to Iparralde to see “in situ”, what French legislators do about it, as France has long permitted legal exemption for artisanal producers. Spain did not contemplate exemptions and that is why it has damaged artisanal production in Euskadi, causing a huge loss of potential among small producers. It is not easy working in a diversified market with no specific laws that cover your economic output level.

Food sovereignty focuses on local and national markets, empowers farmers and family agriculture, small scale fishing, traditional pasturing and it locates food production, distribution and consumption at the base of sustainable environment, and social and economic society. It also promotes transparent trade that guarantees decent incomes and the rights of consumers to control their own feeding and nutrition. An important statistic is that in the Basque Country, 7% of the products consumed are local, and the rest come from outside the Basque Country.

Mr. Lizarralde considers that it is vital to promote a more flexible legislation for small farmers, and work on the current ways and means of selling. The Consumer Association concept, where the client is committed to a weekly or a monthly basket of fresh produce, is a formula that is expanding among the population. However these traditional channels to market are not sufficient for the sales necessary to guarantee artisanal production. New channels of commercialisation are needed to be found. It is as important to know which product should be produced as it is to know how to sell it, who to sell it to, and how to reach out to those consumers.

The bodies responsible for food safety are more rigorous with some products than others, depending on the risk related to the product. For example, all products of animal origin (meat, milk and eggs among others), must be approved by a sanitary inspector, meanwhile other products such as squid fished with a rod and line  can be sold without any sanitary authorisation, as they are considered as low risk.

For the small artisanal farmer, it is difficult to comply with the regulation, as they lack the necessary infrastructure to measure and show compliance. The law says that, in order to be able to sell your product to the market, it is necessary to comply with the law, whether or not you are a medium sized or a small farmer. But there are certain exceptions with some vegetables and fish. Zero risk does not exist in the food industry and therefore the administration demands to the small artisanal farmers self-control regarding their products. Perhaps a solution might be that the small producer, unable to comply with the legal aspects of the regulation, could demonstrate that their products perfectly healthy and in good sanitary condition. Some of the small producers don’t join cooperatives, whose products are regulated, because they are looking to differentiate themselves, from the rest of the market. But the added value that this approach gives to the product creates its own problems. So some farmers, in order to comply with the legal sanitary regulations, are forced to change their traditional way of making things for more modern methods that comply better with the regulations. There are countries, such as France, where there are more advanced and developed laws, even for products like the foie gras pate, which is not a raw ingredient but has had some amount of transformation: it is a product protected with more flexible regulations.