PRESS RELEASE - LA VÍA CAMPESINA
LA VÍA CAMPESINA’S POSITION ON THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FAMILY FARMING
- 2014
A SPACE FOR THE PROMOTION OF CONCRETE POLICIES ON PEASANT FAMILY FARMING
(Harare, June 2014) La Vía Campesina defines participation in the
International Year of Family Farming, propelled by the UN in 2014, as
the creation of a space for discussion and collective action to to push
Food Sovereignty that has peasants and small farmers as a basis. All
throughout the world they continue to grow and distribute healthy,
self-produced food in their towns, in stark contrast to the commercial
food industry, whose priorities are profit and speculation and whose
strategy is to make agriculture increasingly dependent on agro-toxics,
increasing their profits through the sale of herbicides, whilst damaging
and contaminating natural resources.
We have witnessed a profound food crisis, which has brought attention
to peasant based food production and the eradication of hunger within
the UN's agenda. The UN has recognised the crucial role that male and
female peasants play in this arduous task.
During the International Year of Family Farming, La Vía Campesina looks
to offer political proposals within the framework of Food Sovereignty,
constructed by small farmers. The term 'family farming' is vast, and may
include almost any agricultural model or method whose direct
beneficiaries are not corporations or investors. It includes both
small-scale and large-scale producers (with farms covering thousands of
hectares), as well as small-scale producers who are entirely dependent
on the private sector, through contract farming or other forms of
economic exploitation, promoted though concepts such as "The value
chain". This is why La Vía Campesina defends family farming in terms of
peasant based ecological Farming, as opposed to the large-scale,
industrial, toxic farming of agribusinesses, which expel peasants and
small farmers and grab the world's lands.
It is imperative, during this International Year of Family Farming,
that critical steps be taken and that commitment be mobilised so that
policies to protect and to strengthen peasant family farming might be
implemented. La Vía Campesina supports a model of food production which
promotes Food Sovereignty. This includes:
Access and control over productive resources such as land, water, seeds
and finance. It is important to highlight, in this space for discussion,
the urgent need for Integral Agrarian Reform: the democratisation of
land, and the creation of direct employment, housing and food
production. We consider that the concept of integral agrarian reform
should not be limited to just the redistribution of land. We support an
Integral Agrarian Reform which offers full rights over lands, which
recognises the legal rights of indigenous populations over their
territories, which guarantees fishing communities access to and control
over fisheries and ecosystems, and which recognises the right of access
to and control over livestock migration routes and pastures;
The recognition that female peasants and female agricultural workers
have the same rights as their male counterparts;
The prioritisation of local food systems and markets;
The recognition of rights and protection against corporation-led
production, and the large-scale production of agro-fuel;
The use of ecological production methods.
During this UN International Year, as La Vía Campesina, we contemplate
certain threats such as the criminalisation, the judicialisation and the
continuous repression under which male and female peasants live, not
just at the hands of their states, but also at those of the
transnational corporations. Conflicts over land and other natural
resources exist throughout the world.
Of the national governments, we therefore demand: an end to land
grabbing, and that of water and seeds; that they promote policies which
guarantee Food Sovereignty, biodiversity and peasants' seeds, and that
they improve access to land and water; that they recognise peasant
rights regarding the production, reproduction and exchange of their
traditional seeds, guarantees of agro-biodiversity and peasants'
autonomy; and that they increase the support and public investments for
peasant based production, and guarantee markets and equitable trade.
At international level, we urge governments to apply the Guidelines on
Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, and
other key decisions from the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and
that they adopt the UN Declaration of Peasants' Rights. Additionally, we
urge that they implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, and that they end negotiations for
any new commercial agreements, particularly the TTIP (Trans-Atlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership) or the TPP (Trans-Pacific
Partnership).
In La Vía Campesina, we believe that we have to use this year to
redirect agriculture towards a model of Food Sovereignty which will
generate employment, provide healthy food, and respect natural
resources. We call for the creation of an alliance between countryside
and city, that it might revive the peasants' dignity and highlight their
great contribution to food production; we need important political
changes, both for our tables and for our fields.
CONTACT FOR THE PRESS:
S.Kannaiyan: +91 9444979543 - sukannaiyan69(a)gmail.com
Chukki Nanjundaswamy: + 919845066156 - chukki.krrs(a)gmail.com
Andrea Ferrante: + 393480189221 - a.ferrante(a)aiab.it
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