Correct logo: On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements
by La Vía Campesina
On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free
Trade Agreements [1]
Published on Monday, 30 March 2015 15:04
17 APRIL 2015: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEASANT AND FARMER STRUGGLE AGAINST
TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
(Zimbabwe, Harare, March 30, 2015) La Via Campesina declared April 17th
as the International Day of Peasant Struggle in order to highlight the
struggle and to denounce the criminalization of protests. Peasant and
farmers are persecuted and suffer violence on a daily basis as a result
of the actions of agribusiness and the implementation of neoliberal
policies in the countryside. For the International Peasant and Farmer
Movement, it is urgent to speed up the approval of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in rural
areas. The Declaration will be a tool to support the struggle for life
and dignity in the countryside.
This April 17th 2015, La Via Campesina will focus its mobilizations on
the impacts of Transnational Corporations and Free Trade Agreements on
peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sovereignty. We
are calling for the further strengthening of social struggle and of the
world-wide organization of peoples, in order to demand a genuine
agrarian reform and to assert the ancestral right to lands and
territories, a central element of Peasant Agriculture and Peoples' Food
Sovereignty.
Since 1996 - in honour of the 19 landless peasants massacred in Brazil -
the International Peasant Movement has celebrated this global day of
action and mobilization. It is a day to celebrate and strengthen
people's solidarity and resistance, and to deepen the alliance between
city and countryside in support of a societal project based on social
justice and the dignity of peoples.
We, the women and men peasants and small-scale farmers, indigenous
peoples, afro-descendants, and landless people of the world are
struggling to build a model of production based on peasant and
small-scale agriculture and food sovereignty. Free Trade Agreements run
counter to this project; they further increase the displacement,
expulsion, and disappearance of peasants by promoting a capitalist
industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals.
These agreements are negotiated under the influence, and for the
interests, of a handful of transnational corporations; the voice of the
people is excluded.
For La Via Campesina, policies that aim to open up and deregulate
markets only serve the interests of transnational corporations. These
commercial and trade agreements - be they multi- or bi-lateral -
basically seek to protect foreign companies by establishing a set of
conditions, measures, and rules to protect their investments. Meanwhile,
the liberalization of markets has severe social and economic impacts on
peasants and farmers in the North and in the South. Free Trade
Agreements put the rights of commerce over all other rights and
concerns.
To provide just one example, the European Union, the United States, and
Canada are currently negotiating the most significant Free Trade
Agreements in history. Those agreements will liberalize trade and
investment markets. They will have a global impact and define, in a way
that is favourable to business, the new rules by which transnational
companies can operate. If passed, these agreements will provide
corporations with the new tools that they need to manipulate
regulations, norms, and public policies in order to increase their
profits, namely the Investor-State Dispute Resolution and the Regulatory
Cooperation Council. As a result, states, regions and communities will
lose the power to protect their own citizens and environments.
In this context, we denounce the "arbitration" mechanism being used by
these transnational companies to globalize, transnationalize, and
privatize the world's judicial systems. Private corporations are being
allowed to write the laws and to pursue a strategy aimed at weakening
states and national sovereignty. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization
(WTO) is currently trying to re-invent itself and has launched a new
offensive against national food production, distribution, and reserve
systems, which is aimed at weakening the public systems that protect the
people.
On this Global Day of Action, La Via Campesina calls on its member
organizations, friends and allies to take action in their countries and
regions to strengthen our international struggle. These actions can be
mobilizations, land occupations, seed exchanges, food sovereignty fairs,
forums, cultural events, etc.
You can register these actions and send us information about the planned
events by sending a mail to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org
Please also send us pictures, videos, posters, flyers
We will publish a map of all actions on www.viacampesina.org [2]
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE!
FOR PEOPLE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY,
AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FTAS!
Links:
------
[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-ap...
[2] http://viacampesina.org/
9 years, 9 months
On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free Trade Agreements
by La Vía Campesina
On 17th April, We Struggle Against Transnational Companies and Free
Trade Agreements [1]
Published on Monday, 30 March 2015 14:04
17 APRIL 2015: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEASANT AND FARMER STRUGGLE AGAINST
TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
(Zimbabwe, Harare, March 30, 2015) La Via Campesina declared April 17th
as the International Day of Peasant Struggle in order to highlight the
struggle and to denounce the criminalization of protests. Peasant and
farmers are persecuted and suffer violence on a daily basis as a result
of the actions of agribusiness and the implementation of neoliberal
policies in the countryside. For the International Peasant and Farmer
Movement, it is urgent to speed up the approval of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in rural
areas. The Declaration will be a tool to support the struggle for life
and dignity in the countryside.
This April 17th 2015, La Via Campesina will focus its mobilizations on
the impacts of Transnational Corporations and Free Trade Agreements on
peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sovereignty. We
are calling for the further strengthening of social struggle and of the
world-wide organization of peoples, in order to demand a genuine
agrarian reform and to assert the ancestral right to lands and
territories, a central element of Peasant Agriculture and Peoples' Food
Sovereignty.
Since 1996 - in honour of the 19 landless peasants massacred in Brazil -
the International Peasant Movement has celebrated this global day of
action and mobilization. It is a day to celebrate and strengthen
people's solidarity and resistance, and to deepen the alliance between
city and countryside in support of a societal project based on social
justice and the dignity of peoples.
We, the women and men peasants and small-scale farmers, indigenous
peoples, afro-descendants, and landless people of the world are
struggling to build a model of production based on peasant and
small-scale agriculture and food sovereignty. Free Trade Agreements run
counter to this project; they further increase the displacement,
expulsion, and disappearance of peasants by promoting a capitalist
industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals.
These agreements are negotiated under the influence, and for the
interests, of a handful of transnational corporations; the voice of the
people is excluded.
For La Via Campesina, policies that aim to open up and deregulate
markets only serve the interests of transnational corporations. These
commercial and trade agreements - be they multi- or bi-lateral -
basically seek to protect foreign companies by establishing a set of
conditions, measures, and rules to protect their investments. Meanwhile,
the liberalization of markets has severe social and economic impacts on
peasants and farmers in the North and in the South. Free Trade
Agreements put the rights of commerce over all other rights and
concerns.
To provide just one example, the European Union, the United States, and
Canada are currently negotiating the most significant Free Trade
Agreements in history. Those agreements will liberalize trade and
investment markets. They will have a global impact and define, in a way
that is favourable to business, the new rules by which transnational
companies can operate. If passed, these agreements will provide
corporations with the new tools that they need to manipulate
regulations, norms, and public policies in order to increase their
profits, namely the Investor-State Dispute Resolution and the Regulatory
Cooperation Council. As a result, states, regions and communities will
lose the power to protect their own citizens and environments.
In this context, we denounce the "arbitration" mechanism being used by
these transnational companies to globalize, transnationalize, and
privatize the world's judicial systems. Private corporations are being
allowed to write the laws and to pursue a strategy aimed at weakening
states and national sovereignty. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization
(WTO) is currently trying to re-invent itself and has launched a new
offensive against national food production, distribution, and reserve
systems, which is aimed at weakening the public systems that protect the
people.
On this Global Day of Action, La Via Campesina calls on its member
organizations, friends and allies to take action in their countries and
regions to strengthen our international struggle. These actions can be
mobilizations, land occupations, seed exchanges, food sovereignty fairs,
forums, cultural events, etc.
You can register these actions and send us information about the planned
events by sending a mail to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org
Please also send us pictures, videos, posters, flyers
We will publish a map of all actions on www.viacampesina.org [2]
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE!
FOR PEOPLE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY,
AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES AND FTAS!
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/1...
[2] http://viacampesina.org/
9 years, 9 months
New edition of the Nyéléni Newsletter is now available online!
by La Vía Campesina
Rights to Natural Resources
Published on Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:41
[1]NEW EDITION OF THE NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!
As the world lurches from crisis to crisis, the value of land, water,
forests, minerals and other natural resources as sources of wealth
creation continues to rise. For those with long-standing ties to land,
water and territories, nature's greatest wealth and value is life
itself, and these crises simply confirm the necessity for humans to live
symbiotically with nature. However for many, natural resources are
things that can be parceled, packaged, changed, bought, sold and traded
in markets far away from the original location of the resource.
In this edition of Nyéléni learn more how peoples across the world are
fighting to secure and defend their rights to natural resources and the
rights of nature. Click here to download the english edition [2] or read
it directly from www.nyeleni.org [3]!
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.viacampesina.org/en/images/2015-nyeleni-newsletter-natural%20r...
[2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=65
[3] http://www.nyeleni.org/
9 years, 9 months
LVC-La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty
by La Vía Campesina
La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food
Sovereignty [1]
Published on Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:29
[2]Harare, 15 March, 2015 - La Via Campesina, an International Peasant
Movement, will be represented at the World Social Forum in Tunis as from
March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of fifty delegates, made up of peasant
(men and women), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of the
global regions, with a particular focus of the Arabic world delegates.
La Via Campesina considers this as an important space for mobilization
opportunity around alternatives and proposals in favor of Food
sovereignty as well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies and
other social movements, mainly the Maghreb and Mashreq ones.
In fact, the 2015 WSF will be held at a crucial moment at which the
social movement are seeking for justice, freedom and solidarity. The set
goals and orientations do take into consideration the political, social
and economic changes in Maghreb-Mashreq, and as well in the African
continent, with regard to the ecological and economical crisis around
the entire globe. The identified objectives are indications of a better
solution to all these crucial issues, and promote the convergences and
alternative construction.
According to N'Diakhate Fall, a CNCR Peasant leader in Senegal, and a
member of the International Coordination Committee of la Via Campesina,
« Food sovereignty is an alternative, if well implemented, can solve in
major part the crisis being lived by humanity, mainly the food and
climate crisis».
In Tunis, La Via Campesina will take part in many self-directed
activities, and will be part of the Land and Water Global Convergence,
the Resistance Global Convergence to the rhythm of the Transnational
cooperation and a workshop to restore the local food systems
withURGENCI, HIC and RIPESS.
The complete agenda of la Via Campesina in Tunis is available here.
A press conference is scheduled on March 26th at 11h30 in a venue to be
confirmed.
CONTACT FOR PRESS
Lamine COULIBALY, laminezie(a)gmail.com
+216 41293663
Boaventura MONJANE, boa.monjane(a)viacampesina.org
+216 41293767
http://viacampesina.org/ [3]
http://tv.viacampesina.org/ [4]
Links:
------
[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/1768-...
[2]
http://viacampesina.org/en/images/2015-Tunis%20%20press%20release.jpg
[3] http://viacampesina.org/
[4] http://tv.viacampesina.org/
9 years, 9 months
La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food Sovereignty
by La Vía Campesina
La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in order to promote Food
Sovereignty
Harare, 15 March, 2015 - La Via Campesina, an International Peasant
Movement, will be represented at the World Social Forum in Tunis as from
March 24th up to 28th by a bunch of fifty delegates, made up of peasant
(men and women), farming labors, from more than 20 countries of the
global regions, with a particular focus of the Arabic world delegates.
La Via Campesina considers this as an important space for mobilization
opportunity around alternatives and proposals in favor of Food
sovereignty as well as strengthening the solidarity with the allies and
other social movements, mainly the Maghreb and Mashreq ones.
In fact, the 2015 WSF will be held at a crucial moment at which the
social movement are seeking for justice, freedom and solidarity. The
set goals and orientations do take into consideration the political,
social and economic changes in Maghreb-Mashreq, and as well in the
African continent, with regard to the ecological and economical crisis
around the entire globe. The identified objectives are indications of a
better solution to all these crucial issues, and promote the
convergences and alternative construction.
According to N'Diakhate Fall, a CNCR Peasant leader in Senegal, and a
member of the International Coordination Committee of la Via Campesina,
« Food sovereignty is an alternative, if well implemented, can solve in
major part the crisis being lived by humanity, mainly the food and
climate crisis».
In Tunis, La Via Campesina will take part in many self-directed
activities, and will be part of the Land and Water Global Convergence,
the Resistance Global Convergence to the rhythm of the Transnational
cooperation and a workshop to restore the local food systems with
URGENCI, HIC and RIPESS.
The complete agenda of la Via Campesina in Tunis is available here.
A press conference is scheduled on March 26th at 11h30 in a venue to be
confirmed.
Contact presse
Lamine COULIBALY, laminezie(a)gmail.com
+216 41293663
Boaventura MONJANE, boa.monjane(a)viacampesina.org
+216 41293767
http://viacampesina.org/ [1]
http://tv.viacampesina.org/ [2]
Links:
------
[1] http://viacampesina.org/
[2] http://tv.viacampesina.org/
9 years, 9 months
New peoples' declaration brings common understanding of agroecology
by La Vía Campesina
New peoples' declaration brings common understanding of agroecology [1]
Published on Friday, 20 March 2015 17:51
[2]LVC, MAB, MAELA, ROPPA, WFF, WFFP, WAMIP, IPC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Zimbabwe, Harare, 18 March 2015 - "Agroecology is political; it requires
us to challenge and transform structures of power in society. We need to
put the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters,
knowledge, culture and the commons in the hands of the peoples who feed
the world," according to the declaration [3] of the International Forum
of Agroecology.
More than 200 people took part in the forum, held in Nyéléni, Mali, from
February 23 to 27, representing organizations of peasants, indigenous
people, agricultural workers, artisanal fisherfolks, and nomadic
pastoralists, as well as consumers and other urban people. They met to
develop joint strategies to promote agroecology and defend it from
corporate co-optation.
The declaration, available in English [3], Spanish [4] and French [5],
calls for an immediate transformation based on truly agroecological food
production by peasants, artisanal fishers, urban farmers etc.
"Agroecology was always essential to humanity, because it builds
autonomy for the food producers and provides a strong base for food
sovereignty," says the document.
The participants warn that "agroecology is at a crossroads." They note
that "many multilateral institutions, governments, universities and
research centers, some NGOs, corporations and others, [have] finally
recognized agroecology. "But, they continue, "they have tried to
redefine it as a narrow set of technologies, to offer some tools that
appear to ease the sustainability crisis of industrial food production,
while the existing structures of power remain unchallenged."
They call this the "co-optation of agroecology to fine-tune the
industrial food system, while paying lip service to the environmental
discourse", and note that this has various names, including "climate
smart agriculture", "sustainable-" or "ecological-intensification",
industrial monoculture production of "organic" food, etc. For them,
"these are not agroecology: we reject them, and we will fight to expose
and block this insidious appropriation of agroecology."
In the declaration they go on to say that: "The real solutions to the
crises of the climate, malnutrition, etc., will not come from
_conforming_ to the industrial model. We must_transform_ it and build
our own local food systems that create new rural-urban links, based on
truly agroecological food production by peasants, artisanal fishers,
pastoralists, indigenous peoples, urban farmers, etc. We cannot allow
agroecology to be a tool of the industrial food production model: we see
it as the essential _alternative_ to that model, and as the means of
_transforming_ how we produce and consume food into something better for
humanity and our Mother Earth."
According to Andrea Ferrante, from the Italian Association of Biological
Farmers [6] (AIAB) and La Via Campesina, the answer to feeding the world
lies with agroecology. "We want a model that is based on our knowledge,
our way of living, not on petrol and fake answers from the industrial
world. We are looking at the future of our children," he said.
Participants of the forum worked out a strategy plan with nine main
targets and several sub-goals to support the political, social and
economic issues of food producers. The action plan clearly places women
at the centre, as fighting gender-based inequality is essential for
agroecology. For Maria Noel, from Movimiento Agroecológico de America
Latina y el Caribe [7](MAELA) agroecology has been practiced for
centuries and it represents more than just a system of production. "It
was a way of being, a way of life that respects the environment,
provides a livelihood and income to the majority of food producers and
in which women have always played great role," she said.
The action plan also includes the building of local economies, sharing
knowledge and building alliances between diverse constituencies.
These constituencies claim their legitimacy to lead it into the future,
as "policy makers cannot move forward on agroecology without us. They
must respect and support our agroecological processes rather than
continuing to support the forces that destroy us". They also call on
peoples to join them in the collective task of jointly constructing
agroecology as part of popular struggles to build a better world, a
world based on mutual respect, social justice, equity, solidarity and
harmony with our Mother Earth.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Ibrahima Coulibaly, CNOP-LVC, + 22366761126, i_ibracoul(a)yahoo.fr (French
and English)
María Noel Salgado, MAELA, +59899762883, maria.noel.salgado(a)gmail.com
(Spanish)
Andreas Ferrante, AIAB-LVC, +393480189221, a.ferrante(a)aiab.it (English,
Spanish, French and Italian)
Judith Hitchman, Urgenci, +33 680600391, hitchman(a)club-internet.fr
(English and French)
WEBSITES
http://www.foodsovereignty.org/ [8]
http://www.viacampesina.org [9]
see photos http://tv.viacampesina.org/Mali-Agroecology-is-in-our-hands
[10]
Links:
------
[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-...
[2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/Nyeleni%20agroecolgy%2043.jpg
[3]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-...
[4]
http://viacampesina.org/es/index.php/temas-principales-mainmenu-27/agricu...
[5]
http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/les-grands-ths-mainmenu-27/agricultu...
[6] http://www.aiab.it/
[7] http://maela-agroecologia.org/
[8] http://www.foodsovereignty.org/
[9] http://viacampesina.org/
[10]
http://tv.viacampesina.org/Mali-Agroecology-is-in-our-hands-669?lang=en
9 years, 9 months
Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology
by La Vía Campesina
DECLARATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR AGROECOLOGY
(http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-...
[1])
NYÉLÉNI, MALI, 27 FEBRUARY 2015
We are delegates representing diverse organizations and international
movements of small-scale food producers and consumers, including
peasants, indigenous peoples and communities (together with hunters and
gatherers), family farmers, rural workers, herders and pastoralists,
fisherfolk and urban people. Together, the diverse constituencies our
organizations represent produce some 70% of the food consumed by
humanity. They are the primary global investors in agriculture, as well
as the primary providers of jobs and livelihoods in the world.
We gathered here at the Nyéléni Center in Sélingué, Mali from 24 to 27
of February, 2015, to come to a common understanding of agroecology as a
key element in the construction of Food Sovereignty, and to develop
joint strategies to promote Agroecology and defend it from co-optation.
We are grateful to the people of Mali who have welcomed us in this
beautiful land. They have taught us through their example, that the
dialogue of our various forms of knowledge is based on respectful
listening and on the collective construction of shared decisions. We
stand in solidarity with our Malian sisters and brothers who struggle -
sometimes sacrificing their lives - to defend their territories from the
latest wave of land grabbing that affects so many of our countries.
Agroecology means that we stand together in the circle of life, and this
implies that we must also stand together in the circle of struggle
against land grabbing and the criminalization of our movements.
BUILDING ON THE PAST, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Our peoples, constituencies, organizations and communities have already
come very far in defining Food Sovereignty as a banner of joint struggle
for justice, and as the larger framework for Agroecology. Our ancestral
production systems have been developed over millennia, and during the
past 30 to 40 years this has come to be called agroecology. Our
agroecology includes successful practices and production, involves
farmer-to-farmer and territorial processes, training schools, and we
have developed sophisticated theoretical, technical and political
constructions.
In 2007 many of us gathered here at Nyéléni, at the Forum for Food
Sovereignty, to strengthen our alliances and to expand and deepen our
understanding of Food Sovereignty, through a collective construction
between our diverse constituencies. Similarly, we gather here at the
Agroecology Forum 2015 to enrich Agroecology through dialogue between
diverse food producing peoples, as well as with consumers, urban
communities, women, youth, and others. Today our movements, organized
globally and regionally in the International Planning Committee for Food
Sovereignty (IPC), have taken a new and historic step.
Our diverse forms of smallholder food production based on agroecology
generate local knowledge, promote social justice, nurture identity and
culture, and strengthen the economic viability of rural areas.
Smallholders defend our dignity when we choose to produce in an
agroecological way.
OVERCOMING MULTIPLE CRISES
Agroecology is the answer to how to transform and repair our material
reality in a food system and rural world that has been devastated by
industrial food production and its so-called Green and Blue Revolutions.
We see agroecology as a key form of resistance to an economic system
that puts profit before life.
The corporate model over-produces food that poisons us, destroys soil
fertility, is responsible for the deforestation of rural areas, the
contamination of water and the acidification of oceans and killing of
fisheries. Essential natural resources have been commodified, and rising
production costs are driving us off the land. Farmers' seeds are being
stolen and sold back to us at exorbitant prices, bred as varieties that
depend on costly, contaminating agrochemicals. The industrial food
system is a key driver of the multiple crises of climate, food,
environmental, public health and others. Free trade and corporate
investment agreements, investor-state dispute settlement agreements, and
false solutions such as carbon markets, and the growing financialization
of land and food, etc., all further aggravate these crises. Agroecology
within a food sovereignty framework offers us a collective path forward
from these crises.
AGROECOLOGY AT A CROSSROADS
The industrial food system is beginning to exhaust it's productive and
profit potential because of its internal contradictions - such as soil
degradation, herbicide-tolerant weeds, depleted fisheries, pest- and
disease-ravaged monocultural plantations - and it's increasingly obvious
negative consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, and the health crisis
of malnutrition, obesity, diabetes, colon disease and cancer caused by
diets heavy in industrial and junk food.
Popular pressure has caused many multilateral institutions, governments,
universities and research centers, some NGOs, corporations and others,
to finally recognize "agroecology". However, they have tried to redefine
it as a narrow set of technologies, to offer some tools that appear to
ease the sustainability crisis of industrial food production, while the
existing structures of power remain unchallenged. This co-optation of
agroecology to fine-tune the industrial food system, while paying lip
service to the environmental discourse, has various names, including
"climate smart agriculture", "sustainable-" or
"ecological-intensification", industrial monoculture production of
"organic" food, etc. For us, these are not agroecology: we reject them,
and we will fight to expose and block this insidious appropriation of
agroecology.
The real solutions to the crises of the climate, malnutrition, etc.,
will not come from conforming to the industrial model. We must transform
it and build our own local food systems that create new rural-urban
links, based on truly agroecological food production by peasants,
artisanal fishers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, urban farmers, etc.
We cannot allow agroecology to be a tool of the industrial food
production model: we see it as the essential alternative to that model,
and as the means of transforming how we produce and consume food into
something better for humanity and our Mother Earth.
OUR COMMON PILLARS AND PRINCIPLES OF AGROECOLOGY
Agroecology is a way of life and the language of Nature, that we learn
as her children. It is not a mere set of technologies or production
practices. It cannot be implemented the same way in all territories.
Rather it is based on principles that, while they may be similar across
the diversity of our territories, can and are practiced in many
different ways, with each sector contributing their own colors of their
local reality and culture, while always respecting Mother Earth and our
common, shared values.
The production practices of agroecology (such as intercropping,
traditional fishing and mobile pastoralism, integrating crops, trees,
livestock and fish, manuring, compost, local seeds and animal breeds,
etc.) are based on ecological principles like building life in the soil,
recycling nutrients, the dynamic management of biodiversity and energy
conservation at all scales. Agroecology drastically reduces our use of
externally-purchased inputs that must be bought from industry. There is
no use of agrotoxics, artificial hormones, GMOs or other dangerous new
technologies in agroecology.
Territories are a fundamental pillar of agroecology. Peoples and
communities have the right to maintain their own spiritual and material
relationships to their lands. They are entitled to secure, develop,
control, and reconstruct their customary social structures and to
administer their lands and territories, including fishing grounds, both
politically and socially. This implies the full recognition of their
laws, traditions, customs, tenure systems, and institutions, and
constitutes the recognition of the self-determination and autonomy of
peoples.
Collective rights and access to the commons are a fundamental pillar of
agroecology. We share access to territories that are the home to many
different peer groups, and we have sophisticated customary systems for
regulating access and avoiding conflicts that we want to preserve and to
strengthen.
The diverse knowledge and ways of knowing of our peoples are fundamental
to agroecology. We develop our ways of knowing through dialogue among
them (diálogo de saberes). Our learning processes are horizontal and
peer-to-peer, based on popular education. They take place in our own
training centers and territories (farmers teach farmers, fishers teach
fishers, etc.), and are also intergenerational, with exchange of
knowledge between youth and elders. Agroecology is developed through our
own innovation, research, and crop and livestock selection and breeding.
The core of our cosmovisions is the necessary equilibrium between
nature, the cosmos and human beings. We recognize that as humans we are
but a part of nature and the cosmos We share a spiritual connection with
our lands and with the web of life. We love our lands and our peoples,
and without that, we cannot defend our agroecology, fight for our
rights, or feed the world. We reject the commodification of all forms of
life.
Families, communities, collectives, organizations and movements are the
fertile soil in which agroecology flourishes. Collective
self-organization and action are what make it possible to scale-up
agroecology, build local food systems, and challenge corporate control
of our food system. Solidarity between peoples, between rural and urban
populations, is a critical ingredient.
The autonomy of agroecology displaces the control of global markets and
generates self-governance by communities. It means we minimize the use
of purchased inputs that come from outside. It requires the re-shaping
of markets so that they are based on the principles of solidarity
economy and the ethics of responsible production and consumption. It
promotes direct and fair short distribution chains. It implies a
transparent relationship between producers and consumers, and is based
on the solidarity of shared risks and benefits.
Agroecology is political; it requires us to challenge and transform
structures of power in society. We need to put the control of seeds,
biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture and the
commons in the hands of the peoples who feed the world.
Women and their knowledge, values, vision and leadership are critical
for moving forward. Migration and globalization mean that women's work
is increasing, yet women have far less access to resources than men. All
too often, their work is neither recognized nor valued. For agroecology
to achieve its full potential, there must be equal distribution of
power, tasks, decision-making and remuneration.
Youth, together with women, provide one of the two principle social
bases for the evolution of agroecology. Agroecology can provide a
radical space for young people to contribute to the social and
ecological transformation that is underway in many of our societies.
Youth bear the responsibility to carry forward the collective knowledge
learned from their parents, elders and ancestors into the future. They
are the stewards of agroecology for future generations. Agroecology must
create a territorial and social dynamic that creates opportunities for
rural youth and values women's leadership.
STRATEGIES
_I. Promote agroecological production through policies that…_
1. Are territorial and holistic in their approach to social, economic
and natural resources issues.
2. Secure access to land and resources in order to encourage long term
investment by small-scale food producers.
3. Ensure an inclusive and accountable approach to the stewardship of
resources, food production, public procurement policies, urban and rural
infrastructure, and urban planning.
4. Promote decentralized and truly democratized planning processes in
conjunction with relevant local governments and authorities.
5. Promote appropriate health and sanitation regulations that do not
discriminate against small-scale food producers and processors who
practice agroecology.
6. Promote policy to integrate the health and nutrition aspects of
agroecology and of traditional medicines.
7. Ensure pastoralists' access to pastures, migration routes and sources
of water as well as mobile services such as health, education and
veterinary services that are based on and compatible with traditional
practice.
8. Ensure customary rights to the commons. Ensure seed policies that
guarantee the collective rights of peasants' and indigenous peoples' to
use, exchange, breed, select and sell their own seeds.
9. Attract and support young people to join agroecological food
production through strengthening access to land and natural resources,
ensuring fair income, knowledge exchange and transmission.
10. Support urban and peri-urban agroecological production.
11. Protect the rights of communities that practice wild capture,
hunting and gathering in their traditional areas - and encourage the
ecological and cultural restoration of territories to their former
abundance.
12. Implement policies that ensure the rights of fishing communities.
13. Implement the Tenure Guidelines of the Committee on World Food
Security and the Small-scale Fisheries Guidelines of the FAO.
14. Develop and implement policies and programs that guarantee the right
to a dignified life for rural workers, including true agrarian reform,
and agroecology training.
_ II. Knowledge sharing_
1. Horizontal exchanges (peasant-to-peasant, fisher-to-fisher,
pastoralist-to-pastoralist, consumer-and-producer, etc.) and
intergenerational exchanges between generations and across different
traditions, including new ideas. Women and youth must be prioritised.
2. Peoples' control of the research agenda, objectives and methodology.
3. Systemize experience to learn from and build on historical memory.
_III. Recognition of the central role of women_
1. Fight for equal women's' rights in every sphere of agroecology,
including workers' and labour rights, access to the Commons, direct
access to markets, and control of income
2. Programs and projects must fully include women at all stages, from
the earliest formulation through planning and application, with
decision-making roles.
_IV. Build local economies _
1. Promote local markets for local products.
2. Support the development of alternative financial infrastructure,
institutions and mechanisms to support both producers and consumers.
3. Reshape food markets through new relationships of solidarity between
producers and consumers.
4. Develop links with the experience of solidarity economy and
participatory guarantee systems, when appropriate.
_V. Further develop and disseminate our vision of agroecology_
1. Develop a communications plan for our vision of agroecology
2. Promote the health care and nutritional aspects of agroecology
3. Promote the territorial approach of agroecology
4. Promote practices that allows youth to carry forward the permanent
regeneration of our agroecological vision
5. Promote agroecology as a key tool to reduce food waste and loss
across the food system
_VI. Build alliances _
1. Consolidate and strengthen existing alliances such as with the
International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC)
2. Expand our alliance to other social movements and public research
organizations and institutions
VII. Protect biodiversity and genetic resources
1. Protect, respect and ensure the stewardship of biodiversity
2. Take back control of seeds and reproductive material and implement
producers' rights to use, sell and exchange their own seeds and animal
breeds
3. Ensure that fishing communities play the most central role in
controlling marine and inland waterways
_VIII. Cool the planet and adapt to climate change_
1. Ensure international institutions and governments recognize
agroecology as defined in this document as a primary solution for
tackling and adapting to climate change, and not "climate smart
agriculture" or other false versions of agroecology
2. Identify, document and share good experiences of local initiatives on
agroecology that address climate change.
_IX. Denounce and fight corporate and institutional capture of
agroecology_
1. Fight corporate and institutional attempts to grab agroecology as a
means to promote GMOs and other false solutions and dangerous new
technologies.
2. Expose the corporate vested interests behind technical fixes such as
climate-smart agriculture, sustainable intensification and "fine-tuning"
of industrial aquaculture.
3. Fight the commodification and financialization of the ecological
benefits of agroecology.
We have built agroecology through many initiatives and struggles. We
have the legitimacy to lead it into the future. Policy makers cannot
move forward on agroecology without us. They must respect and support
our agroecological processes rather than continuing to support the
forces that destroy us. We call on our fellow peoples to join us in the
collective task of collectively constructing agroecology as part of our
popular struggles to build a better world, a world based on mutual
respect, social justice, equity, solidarity and harmony with our Mother
Earth.
The International Forum on Agroecology was organized at the Nyeleni
Center in Mali, from 24 to 27 February 2015 by the following
organisations: Coordination Nationale des Organisations Paysannes du
Mali (CNOP) as chair; La Via Campesina (LVC), More and Better (MaB),
Movimiento Agroecológico de América Latina y el Caribe (MAELA) , Réseau
des organisations paysannes et de producteurs de l'Afrique de l'Ouest
(ROPPA) , World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fishworkers (WFF), World
Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous
Peoples (WAMIP).
Links:
------
[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/sustainable-...
9 years, 10 months
March 8th: Women’s Struggle for Food Sovereignty; against violence and agribusiness
by La Vía Campesina
WOMEN
WOMEN’S STRUGGLE: FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY; AGAINST VIOLENCE AND
AGRIBUSINESS [1]
Published on Thursday, 05 March 2015 00:12
(Harare, March 8th, 2015) Today, March 8th, International Women's Day,
the Via Campesina calls for the coordination of actions to highlight the
fundamental role played by women in guaranteeing Food Sovereignty - not
only as a means of confronting the food crisis but as an essential
ethical principle that has as its basis social justice and equality. On
this day of struggle, we denounce the prevailing violence, against women
specifically, because the agribusiness model and capitalist interests in
the countryside have exacerbated social and gender inequalities.
It is in this way that we struggle against patriarchy, which affects all
aspects of our lives within our families, our organisations and
communities and all that has to do with our gender and our sexuality. We
also express our condemnation of feminicide, the murder of millions of
girl children and women in all parts of the world, and we stand in
solidarity with all the people who suffer discrimination and violence
because of their gender and/or sexual identity.
The role of women in the Via Campesina is part of what makes this
movement unique, both in the history of peasant and farmer movements and
among other social movements and international organisations.
For Nettie Wiebe of the Via Campesina North America, "the work, the
perspectives, the energy, the leadership, and the presence of women in
the Via Campesina have transformed and strengthened our movement." Not
only does the model of peasant and small-scale agriculture espoused by
the Via Campesina International include women, but it also insists upon
their rights and allows them to be fully equal as women peasants and
small-scale farmers.
In the present context, land-grabbing, dispossession, and exploitation
by transnationals are increasing with the expansionist model of
agribusiness, and there is a corresponding increase in the vulnerability
of women peasant and indigenous women who every day face expulsion from
their land.
In the light of the foregoing, the Via Campesina affirms the necessity
of an International Convention on the Rights of Women and Men Peasants.
The existing international mechanisms and conventions have proved to be
limited, both with regard to the protection of the rights of peasants
and small-scale farmers and to the consequences of neo-liberal policies.
On this International Day of March 8th, we, women and men of the Via
Campesina are defending comprehensive land reform and the natural goods
- land, water, and territory - that together guarantee food sovereignty
through agroecological production and a renewed awareness of the value
of peasant and small-scale agriculture. For this reason, we strongly
decry the destruction and depredation resulting from monoculture and the
indiscriminate use of toxic chemical inputs and from the harmful effects
of the activities of the transnationals in our territories. Greater
profitability and productivity in the countryside means a decline in
decent living conditions for millions of women and men peasants and
small-scale farmers. The market cannot continue to dictate agricultural
policies and to damage the health of people and of nature.
On this March 8th, 2015, we will continue to globalize our struggle and
to globalize hope for a fairer and more egalitarian world for all women
and men. We stand in solidarity with the Peruvian indigenous peasant
woman Máxima Acuña in her struggle of resistance to a transnational
mining company. Her strength and her dignity are a source of
inspiration, enabling us to say: We want an end to the capitalist
patriarchal system.
See more on the following links:
* WOMEN'S MANIFESTO [2]
* Video: Women planting struggles and hope [3]
* Post cards to End violence against Women [4]
Links:
------
[1]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/women-mainme...
[2]
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/our-conferences-mainmenu-28/6-jakart...
[3] http://tv.viacampesina.org/Women-planting-struggles-and-hope?lang=en
[4]
http://tv.viacampesina.org/Post-cards-to-End-violence-againts?lang=en
9 years, 10 months
