The central question of this interdisciplinary project was: How do LSLA influence local actors’ configurations (e.g. local councils, “chiefs”, farmers’ associations, NGOs, intermediaries, traders, landowning farmers, non-land-owning farmers, women), actors’ strategies and decision making about the food system, and what are the impacts on the food security (and related food sovereignty) of local women and men? We approached this main question considering that LSLA are more than a new form of land tenure; we maintained that LSLA are a partial appropriation of the food system with corresponding impacts on gender relations, governance and food security. Consequently, we expected LSLA to have impacts on (1) food production, (2) food processing, (3) food distribution and (4) food consuming, the four constitutive elements of the food system1 , all of which are highly gendered processes. This shift of focus which puts the appropriation of the food system (rather than merely land) in the center of the analysis simultaneously puts gender issues into the limelight. We examined our overall research question from the perspective of two main questions: (1) What are the impacts of LSLA on the configuration of actors who are using, maintaining and organizing the local food system and what coping/resisting strategies do these actors develop? (2) What are the impacts of the configurations of actors and their strategies on the local food system in terms of food security?