Dietary Power and Self-Determination among Female Farmers in Burkina Faso: A Proposal for a Food Consumption Agency Metric

Although food security is traditionally defined with four dimensions, there are increasing calls for an additional two: agency and sustainability. However, it is especially challenging to measure agency, a person’s control over their food production and consumption. Measuring women’s agency is especially critical in African regions south of the Sahara, where women play prominent roles in farming and food preparation. This paper explores the feasibility of creating a metric to measure agency within food systems using data related to food security and dietary diversity among female rice farmers in southwestern Burkina Faso. Informed by the literature on agency, autonomy, and food sovereignty, we developed an agency index based upon a subset of questions in the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). We call this metric the Food Consumption Agency Metric (FCAM). By applying the FCAM, we then sought to understand how agency complements our understanding and measurement of food security. In exploring the relationship between agency and food security more broadly, we found that agency can be quantified in a way that increases its accessibility to policymakers to create more just food systems and expand how we approach food justice.