This paper stems from the debate on food security that has been under way since the World Food Summit of 1996. It discusses the viability of a type of programmatic proposal deriving from the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action signed by the Governments of 148 countries, and it suggests that the implementation of the Plan of Action requires the establishment of a structural link between the population affected by food insecurity -usually unable to make its views known or exert pressure- and the various authorities responsible for initiating public action. The central hypothesis of this paper is that this structural link can be centred upon family farmers. It argues that food security, underpinned by the right to food, is a territorial expression of civic rights.