Marine Degradation and Market Dependency in Ghana : Food Sovereignty as a Critique of Capital in Aquatic Food Systems

Standen, Sophie (2025) Marine Degradation and Market Dependency in Ghana : Food Sovereignty as a Critique of Capital in Aquatic Food Systems. Journal of Agrarian Change: e70013. ISSN 1471-0358

Abstract

Small‐scale fisheries constitute a vital source of food for millions of people, despite facing increasing marginalisation. Food sovereignty is a global social movement that calls attention to the marginalisation of small‐scale food producers in capitalist, corporate‐controlled food systems. This paper develops a food sovereign approach to understanding issues affecting small‐scale fisheries' aquatic food systems. Using qualitative empirical data, it focuses on women post‐harvest workers and the industrial trawling sector in Ghana. Industrial trawling has engendered marine degradation through overfishing, causing a reliance on buying imported and trawler‐caught fish, due to a lack of accessible and affordable fish from the small‐scale sector. The adverse ecological consequences of marine capitalist overexploitation are a key driver in creating the cyclical conditions for capitalist market dependency in Ghanaian fisheries. Examining how marine capitalist overexploitation propels market dependency can help illuminate the complexities of moving towards aquatic food sovereignty in the contemporary world.