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New edition of the Nyeleni newsletter!
by Nyéléni newsletter 18 Dec '23

18 Dec '23

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *How multilateral and other international platforms affect food sovereignty* <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…> <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2Fen%2F…> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: Andrea Medina for ETC Group facebook.com/andreammedinagraphic/ <http://facebook.com/andreammedinagraphic/>* For many governments and policy makers, food has come to be viewed as a commodity rather than a right. Global food governance increasingly serves corporate interests through market- and business-friendly agreements which are normalised in a wide range of multilateral institutions. People's livelihoods and nature are being traded away via economic and financial deals that benefit corporations and elites in different sectors and countries, but threaten the conditions necessary for peoples’ food sovereignty. This threat is now being compounded by corporate techno-fix approaches to climate change and biodiversity crises. In this issue of the Nyéléni newsletter*,* we describe how trends in multilateral and other international platforms are impacting food sovereignty in ways that will be decisive for the future of food and peoples' self-determination. We unpack the different processes in which unfair exchanges are being perpetuated and opaque concepts promoted. As trade and investment fora continue to advance industrial food systems and global supply chains, the proliferation of so-called ‘Nature-based Solutions’ (NBS) is masking new ways of commodifying nature, territories and livelihoods. By assigning land, soil, water, forests and biodiversity the impossible task of making up for the pollution caused by industries elsewhere in exchange for monetary remuneration, a new front of commons enclosure is opening up, which is being enabled, measured and monitored through new technologies. Corporate capture of political and economic agendas is a common factor in all these scenarios; spreading out and embedding in multilateral institutions through multistakeholderism. A glaring example of this is the 2021 Food Systems Summit and the subsequent establishment of a UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, which seeks to hijack the ongoing food governance conversation. A further example is the discussion on Data for Food Security and Nutrition in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), driven by none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is clear that we need to collectively mobilise and resist on an even larger and more coordinated scale than ever before to challenge and reverse these trends across a range of multilateral and other ‘negotiating’ arenas. *ETC Group, FIAN International, Focus on the Global South* *Click here to download the English edition (pdf)* <https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_54_EN.pdf> or read it directly on the website <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…>! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org - www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> *Circulate it!* *Help us to build the movement for food sovereignty from the grassroots.* Every contribution counts: Donate now! <https://donorbox.org/nyeleni-newsletter> [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/InfoNyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter/> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> Newsletter-EN(a)nyeleni.org https://listes.potager.org/listinfo/Newsletter-EN To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to Newsletter-EN-unsubscribe(a)nyeleni.org

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New edition of the Nyéléni newsletter !
by NyÃ©leni newsletter 14 Sep '23

14 Sep '23

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Emerging diseases and factory farming * <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: * Rini Templeton www.riniart.com *What makes food safe?* Within the industrial food system, “safety” is all about managing the high risks created by this model of food production. Food is produced on monoculture fields or factory farms, with uniform breeds of plants and animals that are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases. In this context, diseases can grow or mutate into more lethal forms, and, in the case of animals, transfer to humans and spread through corporate supply chains. To deal with their vulnerabilities, crops are genetically modified or doused with toxic pesticides, and animals are fed antibiotics and drugs, creating more health dangers. Then much of the food gets highly processed and sold through supermarkets, causing harms like diabetes and cancer. More and more regulations and standards are imposed by governments and corporations to deal with these risks. But they typically only curtail the most serious excesses, without threatening corporate profits, and are alien to food systems based on traditional animal husbandry, markets and agroecology, where risks are low because of diversity, local knowledge, trust and small scale circuits. Those regulations have become a tool to expand corporate control and undermine the healthy food systems that continue to feed the majority of the world's people and that are the only real solution to the harms of the industrial food system. *GRAIN* *Click here to download the English edition (pdf)* <https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_53_EN.pdf> or read it directly in the website <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…>! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org - www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> *Circulate it!* *Help us to build the movement for food sovereignty from the grassroots.* Every contribution counts: Donate now! <https://donorbox.org/nyeleni-newsletter> [image: Twitter] [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> -- Emanuela Russo Coordinator of the international *Nyéléni Newsletter * on Food Sovereignty www.nyeleni.org info(a)nyeleni.org Follow us on twitter - @infoNyeleni Follow us on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter [image: https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> <https://donorbox.org/nyeleni-newsletter>

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Nyéléni process: Recognizing the power of people's movements
by NyÃ©leni newsletter 13 Jun '23

13 Jun '23

*Nyéléni process: Recognizing the power of people's movements* <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: * Andrés Mateo Ayala Luna @calma_88 <https://www.instagram.com/calma_88/?hl=en> In 2007 the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) played a vital role in uniting small-scale food producers and their allies to establish a shared vision of food sovereignty and implement strategies to make it a reality. Over time, a robust global movement for food sovereignty emerged, gaining significant political recognition. Together, we have achieved the democratization of global food and agricultural arenas, including the reform of the Committee on World Food Security. Our struggles also influenced food sovereignty policies in various national contexts and successfully secured political acknowledgment of peasants as rights holders through the ratification of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. However, our achievements are now under threat due to an extended period of systemic crises. Right-wing forces, authoritarian regimes, and the corporate capture of democratic governance spaces are on the rise globally, accompanied by the dismantling of the United Nations multilateral system. Human rights violations against peasant and Indigenous communities, along with climate change, biodiversity loss, armed conflicts, and hunger, are escalating rapidly. Furthermore, renewed threats to food sovereignty come from new business configurations, in which hedge fund speculation firms and digital technology titans join forces to oil the wheels of the failing agro-industrial production system. In this context, the IPC advocates for a new global Nyéléni process, leading up to the next Nyéléni Global Forum in India in 2025. Recognizing the power of people's movements, we aim to strengthen solidarity and unity by bridging local and global struggles. We are striving to adopt an intersectional perspective to address the multi-dimensional global crisis effectively. By collaborating with climate justice, workers' rights, feminist, solidarity economy, anti-war, youth, and other movements, we seek to resist the corporate takeover of governance spaces, safeguard human and collective rights worldwide, protect ecosystems, and secure a dignified life on Earth for present and future generations. *IPC for food sovereignty, Friends of the Earth International, La Via Campesina, Transnational Institute* *Click here to download the English edition (pdf)* <https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_52_EN.pdf> or read it directly in the website <https://nyeleni.org/en/category/newsletters-nyeleni-in-english/newsletter-n…>! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org - www.nyeleni.org <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2Fen%2F…> *Circulate it!* *Help us to build the movement for food sovereignty from the grassroots.* Every contribution counts: Donate now! <https://donorbox.org/nyeleni-newsletter> [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/InfoNyeleni/> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> -- Emanuela Russo Coordinator of the international *Nyéléni Newsletter * on Food Sovereignty www.nyeleni.org info(a)nyeleni.org Follow us on twitter - @infoNyeleni Follow us on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter [image: https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/> <https://donorbox.org/nyeleni-newsletter>

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[Nyéléni]Nyéléni newsletter: Youth and the democratization of food systems
by Nyéleni newsletter 13 Dec '22

13 Dec '22

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Youth and the democratization of food systems* <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2FDOWNL…> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: *Sophie Holin for La Via Campesina, Instagram: @soph.ieholin <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2…> It's December. Yet another year in our cycle of life is drawing to a close as we search for hope and solidarity in the face of daunting adversities. The world is marred by rising temperatures, erratic weather events, extreme poverty, hunger, wars, conflicts and violence. A systemic model that placed the interests and profits of the few over those of the many has created this catastrophe. The global industrial food system is a case in point—it is among the largest polluters on the planet. It uses nearly two-thirds of the world’s resources but can only feed a quarter of the world's population, leaving behind a trail of destructive and polluting practices along its supply chain. In contrast, peasant agriculture, which still feeds 70% of the global population, sustains harmonious and healthy cycles of food production, distribution and consumption. It's high time we reminded global food governance institutions and governments that the real solutions to the global food crisis lie in giving peasant communities, Indigenous Peoples, migrant workers, landworkers, small-scale fishers and pastoralists the power and the autonomy to build food sovereignty in our territories. We must rally behind food systems built by and for the people in an agroecological way that respects the cycle of life in all its forms. A vital element in protecting and multiplying these diverse, decentralized and resilient food systems are the conditions available to the young and future small-scale food producers to engage in the production process. This edition of the Nyéléni newsletter delves into the democratization of people’s food systems and the critical need to keep the role and future of the peasant youth in this process. *La Via Campesina Youth Articulation* *Click here to download the English edition* <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2FDOWNL…> or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2F&xid=…> ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fin…> [image: Facebook] <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F…> [image: Website] <https://us5.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyeleni.org%2F&xid=…> -- Emanuela Russo Coordinator of the international *Nyéléni Newsletter * on Food Sovereignty www.nyeleni.org info(a)nyeleni.org Follow us on twitter - @infoNyeleni Follow us on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter [image: https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/] <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/>

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[Nyéléni]Food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity: new Nyéléni newsletter online!
by Nyéleni newsletter 12 Sep '22

12 Sep '22

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity* <https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_49_EN.pdf> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: *Colour drawing on amate bark-paper by the artist Abraham Mauricio Salazar. Reproduced for informational purposes from the book* El ciclo mágico de los días*, by Abraham Mauricio Salazar and Antonio Saldívar. National Council for Education Development (CONAFE), Mexico, 1979 At a time when the media is sounding the alarm on high prices and shortages due to the war in Europe, even if there is not always an exact correlation, we are once again questioning the information that places large corporations as the suppliers of most of our food. Anchored to this fabricated image, the industrial agri-food system pushes a new assault on agriculture with the digitalisation of its processes, promotes “carbon sequestration” based on so-called “nature-based solutions”, continues its drive to control and regulate supply chains to benefit its interests, and even seeks to supplant the attempts of peasants in many parts of the world by sponsoring an “agroecology” that is now promoted by the same corporations and investment funds that for centuries have stripped peasants of the possibilities of an independent agriculture. We are therefore committed to defending our Food Sovereignty: the possibility of being able to reproduce our seeds on our terms and in our spaces, i.e., in full freedom, and to maintain our total independence in producing our own food. For this, it will remain crucial to challenge land grabbing and to insist on autonomy and on the defence of peasant and Indigenous territories and even urban spaces of popular self-management within neighbourhoods. *IPC for Food Sovereignty, FoEI and GRAIN* *Click here to download the English edition* <https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_49_EN.pdf> or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/> ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/>

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[Nyéléni]Nyéléni international launches new website! Check it out!
by Nyéleni newsletter 30 Jun '22

30 Jun '22

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Nyéléni international launches new website!* <http://www.nyeleni.org> 30th June 2022 – Nyéléni, the International Food Sovereignty movement has launched its new website (nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/>) today to ensure easier accessibility and visibility to all the material and documents produced over more than 15 years of struggles and building the movement for Food Sovereignty. *“ We are extremely thrilled about this new website. We are quite certain that it will be a key resource for all the people and organisations already involved in the struggle for Food Sovereignty or for all the ones who are looking for more information on this topic.”* Said Shalmali Guttal, member of the Nyéléni newsletter Editorial Board for Focus on the Global South. The website, accessible in English, Spanish and French, is now more user-friendly, mobile-compatible and it has a better search engine. The content has also been organised in three main sections: - *The International Food Sovereignty movement and newsletter.* This section introduces the movement and the newsletter, as well as all the organisations involved. It also links to a collection of key documents and publications divided by theme (such as Food Sovereignty, Land, Fishery, etc. These compendiums will continue to be updated with new documents and material. - *The Nye**léni **newsletter.* This section includes all the newsletter editions published until now. The newsletter is the only common publication of the organisations and movements implicated in the international struggle for Food Sovereignty, which makes it unique. Over the last 10 years more than forty editions on a variety of topics have been regularly published (such as land and territory, seeds, migration and farm workers, ocean grabbing, digitalization, agroecology, FTAs, corporate governance, nutrition, authoritarianism, climate change, and many more…). The newsletter offers important informative and educational material on complex issues and provides a unique space for grassroots organisations to share their experiences and learn from each other. - *The Nyéléni forums for Food Sovereignty.* On one hand this section includes all the documents produced during the Forum which took place in Mali in 2007: from the material generated during the long preparation process before the event, to the media coverage and the final reports. On the other there is a link to the new Nyéléni process which is taking place at the moment and will finalise with a new Global Forum of Food Sovereignty in the upcoming years. *“We are delighted by this new website. We think that it will improve the visibility of the international Nyéléni movement. We also believe that it will help the Nyéléni newsletter to reach a larger audience while continuing to benefit all the grassroots movements involved worldwide in the struggle for Food Sovereignty. We hope you will join us in this effort to make the voice of the international Food Sovereignty movement heard!”* Said Nadine Nembhard, member of the Nyéléni newsletter Editorial Board for the World Forum of Fisher People. *Website *- The web address hasn't changed, have a look! nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/es/bienvenido-al-sitio-web-del-boletin-de-nyeleni/> [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/>

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[Nyéléni]Nyéléni process: Towards a Global Forum for Food Sovereignty
by Nyéleni newsletter 21 Jun '22

21 Jun '22

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Nyéléni process* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=177>*: Towards a Global Forum for Food Sovereignty* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=177> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: Rosanna Morris <https://rosannamorris.com/>* *Under the eye of Nyéléni, an African woman who defied discriminatory regulations and burned with creativity and agricultural progress, we will find the energy to transform the right to food sovereignty into a beacon for the construction of another world.* Women’s declaration on food sovereignty <https://nyeleni.org/spip.php?article310> As the world lurches from one crisis to another, Nyéléni symbolizes the convergence of our struggles and commitments to build a world free of greed, hunger, exploitation, extractivism, misogyny, racism, discrimination, and violence. Since 2007, Nyéléni has been a space where we meet in order to build collective strategies to advance food sovereignty, rights to land and territories, agroecology, and the rights of all small-scale food providers. Our *articulations* have given us the strength to organize against capitalism, neoliberalism, corporate power, patriarchy, and ecocide. Through the Nyéléni meetings in 2007, 2011 and 2015, the food sovereignty movement created the basis for our future position in many global negotiations. These events and the concepts born therein led to the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, and the implementation of Farmers’ Rights in the context of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. But in the present global context, the food sovereignty movement cannot make it alone. To dismantle agribusiness and corporate power, as well as provide comprehensive responses to persisting systemic crises and the rise of conservative right-wing forces, we need to converge with peoples' organisations facing different forms of oppression and threats. Collectively, we can propose true alternatives for all and advance social, gender, racial, economic, intergenerational, and environmental justice. The Nyéléni meetings are thus essential for building principles, concepts and strategies shared and reinforced by many movements across different sectors, while defending the most vulnerable at local levels. *IPC for Food Sovereignty, Focus on the Global South, Friends of the Earth International, Crocevia *and* FIAN* *Click here to download the English edition* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=177> or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/> ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/>

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[Nyéléni]The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online!
by Nyéleni newsletter 14 Mar '22

14 Mar '22

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Small-scale fishers: Struggles and mobilisations* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=174> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * *Illustration: Cara Penton, @CaraPenton* The United Nations has declared 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) to highlight the importance of artisanal fishing and aquaculture. Over the past ten years, and even more so since the pandemic, blue economy initiatives have been blooming. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit advanced the notion of “Blue Foods”, which first and foremost means aquaculture. In 2021, the FAO Committee on Fisheries took unprecedented steps to advance aquaculture, giving birth to the "Shanghai Declaration" <https://aquaculture2020.org/declaration/> drafted by WorldFish, industry players, and other stakeholders. IYAFA is now also showcasing artisanal fishing. Some prefer the term small-scale fishing, but regardless of the term used, it is always about the way of life that provides food and income for over a hundred million people globally. However, fisher people’s territories and resources are increasingly being grabbed: the entire blue economy agenda spanning from displacing people in the name of conservation (Marine Protected Areas -MPAs), to massive-scale investments for fish farming, to expanding ports to facilitate more global trade, and to unprecedented sound blasting and drilling for oil and gas, are examples of contemporary development that have and continue to dispossess fishing communities. We hope IYAFA will become the year for fisher people all over the world to scale up resistance and mobilise masses in demands for restitution and regeneration of nature. *Transnational Institute *and *FIAN International* *Click here to download the English edition* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=174> or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/> ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/>

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New edition of Nyeleni now online!
by Nyéleni newsletter 09 Dec '21

09 Dec '21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Introducing the message of pastoralist communities, a voice from the land* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=171> *The new edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * More than half of the Earth’s surface is made up of grasslands and rangelands. For thousands of years pastoralist communities have domesticated animals and managed ecosystems in a sustainable way, producing a diversity of cultures and food systems that are adapted and resilient. Associated biodiversity has always co-existed with pastoralism. Pastoralism is based on the extensive use of territory, sometimes grasslands but also forests or cropland after harvests, marginal lands and other spaces that very often are not suitable for agriculture. Pastoralism is practiced by between 200 and 500 million people worldwide in highly variable environments in nearly every country of the world from the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic Circle. Our way of life has existed since time immemorial, evolving together with the landscape. But today pastoralism is threatened as never before by the forced industrialization of livestock farming. We have to stop the loss of grazing land, “land grabbing” and the restrictions on mobility that make it impossible to maintain a viable pastoralist system. Currently we are defining a possible campaign on Pastoralists Rights. Our identity and culture is being eroded as policies fail to sufficiently include, understand or even recognize the existence of pastoralism. Low economic returns and a lack of recognition mean that young pastoralists in some areas feel forced to leave our way of life or switch to more intensive forms of farming. We are promoting a Youth Section of WAMIP, as for young people it is often difficult to gain access to land. Policy decisions are made with little or no consultation with local communities. We are the traditional land users but we are systematically excluded from decisions on land management, including the reintroduction or management of wild predators or the designation of Nature Conservation areas. Bureaucratic requirements, biased towards intensive livestock production, impose a huge and unrealistic burden of paperwork on pastoralists. But all across Europe and the world, we are getting organized into federations, building regional networks and gaining international recognition from leading institutions. We strive to defend the interests of local producers and to increase our political representation. We are creating research centres, teaming up with scientific institutions, training our young people and building our capacity. WAMIP is an alliance of pastoralist communities and mobile indigenous peoples throughout the world and our common space to preserve our forms of life in pursuit of our livelihoods and cultural identity, to sustainably manage common property resources, and to obtain full respect of our rights. As an independent grassroot movement we work together with other civil society organisations to influence policy makers at national, regional and international level, and supranational bodies such as the UN and subsidiary organisations like FAO, CBD etc. We fight these trends and maintain our way of life by continuously innovating and improving. We use local breeds to adapt to a changing environment. We try to raise awareness among consumers and to sell directly to them. We are using new media to promote our cultural traditions and organize festive events. Some of us have negotiated contracts to prevent fires, maintain heritage landscapes and provide other environmental services. We are ambassadors of local cultural heritage, sustainable productions and for Food Sovereignty. *European Shepherds Network * <http://shepherdnet.eu/> *Click here to download the English edition* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=171> or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org <https://nyeleni.org/> ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/> -- Emanuela Russo Coordinator of the international *Nyéléni Newsletter * on Food Sovereignty www.nyeleni.org info(a)nyeleni.org Follow us on twitter - @infoNyeleni Follow us on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter <http://www.nyeleni.org>

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[Nyéléni]Nyeleni international: Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems
by Nyéleni newsletter 27 Sep '21

27 Sep '21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* *Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems* <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=168> *The autumn edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is online! * This year marks 25 years since the paradigm of food sovereignty was launched at the World Food Summit 1996 in Rome as a direct challenge to market-based food security promoted through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Food sovereignty asserts the autonomy and agency of small-scale food producers and workers in the face of increasing corporate power over the entire realm of food. Since its launch, the food sovereignty movement has grown, diversified, and birthed numerous initiatives to address historical and emerging injustices, inequalities, rights abuses, and oppressions. Today, the movement is at the cutting-edge of real systemic change, with millions of people all over the world engaged in and supporting solidarity economies, agroecology, territorial markets, cooperatives, the defense of land and territories, and the rights of small-scale food producers, workers, migrants, indigenous peoples, women and people living in protracted crises. Ironically, this year, the United Nations will convene a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) that is the polar opposite of food sovereignty. The structure, content, governance and outcomes of the UNFSS are dominated by actors affiliated with the World Economic Forum (WEF), as well as government and UN officials who believe that successfully tackling hunger, unemployment, climate change and biodiversity loss requires the central involvement of corporations since they have capital, technologies and infrastructure that surpass most nations and the entire UN system. The coincidence of these two moments clearly shows fundamentally opposing ideas about food systems. The UNFSS adopts a lens that serves the interests of the industrial, globalized, corporate controlled food system. By deepening dependency on corporate dominated global value chains, and capital-intensive and market mechanisms, this approach sidelines human rights and impedes real transformation of food systems. Food sovereignty, on the other hand, tackles root causes of hunger and malnutrition, emphasizes democratic control over food systems, confronts power asymmetries and calls for radical economic, social and governance changes to build just, equal, territorially rooted food systems that are in harmony with nature, revitalize biodiversity, and ensure the rights of people and communities. Corporations are using their considerable resources to co-opt the conceptualization and governance of food systems through financing, trade, investment, and multi-stakeholder platforms. The UNFSS is a dangerously perfect example of corporate designed multistakeholderism, where corporations can influence public decision making at the highest level but make no public interest commitments themselves. The UNFSS process has been characterized by a lack of transparency in decision-making and strong involvement of corporations in all parts of its structure, posing serious problems of accountability, legitimacy, and democratic control of the UN. Over the past year we have demonstrated our ability to mobilize across multiple constituencies around the world against the corporate capture of food and for food sovereignty. We have succeeded in challenging the legitimacy of the Summit and prevented formal agreement to the creation of new institutions, such as a panel of experts on food systems. The *Counter-Mobilization to Transform Food Systems* organized from July 25-28 reached almost 11,000 people world-wide. Food is a basic need and a human right: food systems provide livelihoods for nearly a third of humanity and are intimately connected to health and ecosystems. We need, therefore, to continue strengthening the convergence of food, health, environmental and climate justice movements, and continue to rise up against corporate food systems that are destroying our planet and our communities. *Click here to download the English edition <http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=168> *or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org ! For any further information, contact info(a)nyeleni.org *Circulate it!* [image: Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/infonyeleni> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/NyeleniNewsletter> [image: Website] <https://nyeleni.org/> -- Emanuela Russo Coordinator of the international Nyéléni Newsletter www.nyeleni.org info(a)nyeleni.org <http://www.nyeleni.org>

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