ABSTRACT
Title: The defence of quality agricultural land as a finite and strategic resource for food sovereignty and local and global sustainability. The case of the Huerta of the metropolitan area of Valencia.

The main objective of this research is to carry out an in-depth study of the Theoretical Framework for Sustainability, which I propose is different from the usual concept of Sustainable Development, because of the importance of two central problems: inequality and poverty -whose most dramatic manifestation is hunger- and the environmental and climatic crisis. Contributions from political ecology, ecological economics and ecological sociology are included. From a critical eco-feminist ethic, I wish to question the dominant perspective and discourse, and integrate multiple dimensions and scales of human development issues on the planet, prioritizing the logic of caring for life.
The second objective, which follows on from the previous one, is to verify the Theoretical Framework for Sustainability on everyday living, on a territorial scale and in one particular society. The third objective is to contribute to the transformation of reality, transcending the academic world and to establish itself through social action.
As these objectives are so broad, I have focused on more concrete aspects which allow me to be more specific. These aspects are the relationship between current food problems and a non- renewable resource which is at risk, namely quality agricultural land, and the importance and role of the social movements involved. 
The political and philosophical stance which reflects these three aspects, whose views I share, is the recovery of food sovereignty, proposed by Via Campesina, an international movement which started in 1993, and integrated by millions of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous people, migrant people and agricultural workers from all over the world.
To be more specific, the Huerta -the fertile region of Valencia- was studied, as were the social movements which defend it. Thus, the research problem is the defence of the Huerta as a social, environmental and territorial conflict, and its potential role for global and local sustainability and food sovereignty.
Finally, in order to move towards greater sustainability on a local scale, it is necessary to build up knowledge from the bottom, which means with and for the social agents involved. Because of this, the techniques and methodology used are Participative Research Action and Social Praxis, used by Red CIMAS (name in spanish) International Observatory of citizens and environment.