Saba’s Food Future: Between a Dutch Security Discourse and Local Sovereignty Practices
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2025-08-24
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en
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Abstract
This study examines the alignments and divergences between Dutch state approaches to food security and local practices of food sovereignty on the island of Saba, a small special municipality in the Caribbean Netherlands. Food systems of small island states generally experience a low level of food security due to challenges such as their small size, vulnerability to environmental shocks, heavy reliance on trade and imports, and significant constraints on land availability. A rapidly changing climate poses further risks for these food systems with rising temperatures, increased periods of drought and more extreme weather conditions. Saba also faces these significant challenges, having transitioned away from traditional, largely self-sufficient agricultural practices toward a heavy reliance on imported foods, with currently over ninety percent of the food being imported through a single supply chain. As a special municipality of the Netherlands, Saba is depended on action from the Dutch national government to increase food security. While the Dutch national government frame food security mostly in economic and productivism terms which emphasize entrepreneurship, integration into the global supply chain and technological innovation, the local narrative aligns more with food sovereignty ideals, stressing cultural appropriateness, agency and cultural identity.
Using a qualitative case study approach, this research combines semi-structured interviews with literature and policy analysis, applying assemblage theory to capture the complex interplay of human and non-human actors shaping Saba’s food system. The results show two alternative assemblages driven by diverging desires. While both perspectives recognize the need for both trade and domestic production in Saba's food system, they differ in strategies to achieve this. The Dutch government proposes interventions such hydroponics farming, a revolving fund and an alternative supply chain from Miami whereas local food sovereignty is expressed though backyard farming, an informal sharing network and a desire for an inter-Carribean trade network. This study argues that including food sovereignty as a key component to achieving sustainable food security would result in greater alignment between these discourses. Recommendations include strengthening backyard and community farming initiatives, fostering inter-island trade within the Caribbean, and restructuring Dutch funding mechanisms to give the local government more ownership and flexibility. While the specific context of Saba limits generalizability, the findings provide transferable insights for other vulnerable states in a small island context and studies looking into tension between national and local food security perspectives.
Keywords: Food Sovereignty, Food Security, Saba, Assemblage Theory, Carribean Netherlands, Governance
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen