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[Info EN] NON AU TTIP, CETA et autres politiques commerciales destructives
by La Vía Campesina 13 Oct '14

13 Oct '14

NON AU TTIP, CETA ET AUTRES POLITIQUES COMMERCIALES DESTRUCTIVES [1] [2](Rome, le 11 octobre) La délégation de La Vía Campesina, réunie à Rome pour la réunion du Comité de Sécurité alimentaire mondial renouvelle son rejet des négociations actuelles sur divers accords de libre échange tels le TTIP [3][1], TPP [4][2] et le CETA [5][3] Dans le cadre de la journée mondiale d'action contre le TTIP et en solidarité avec le 16 octobre, journée d'action mondiale pour la Souveraineté alimentaire. La délégation participe à la 41ème session du CSA, où est célébré le dixième anniversaire des Directives du Droit à l'Alimentation. ´Les paysannes et les paysans, producteurs à petite échelle, ne voient aucune raison de le célébrer puisque lesdites directives n'ont pas été appliquées du tout. D'autre part, les négociations commerciales, menées à l'encontre du droit à l'alimentation, progressent à un rythme préoccupant. La promotion de la concurrence par le biais de la suppression des droits de douane et des normes, permet le renforcement d'un Système agricole et alimentaire chaque fois plus sous le contrôle des multinationales. Le paradigme du commerce néolibéral ignore complètement les normes des droits sociaux, environnementaux et humains et ne fait que garantir les profits et le contrôle d'un petit nombre de transnationales. L'augmentation de la marchandisation des aliments ne respecte ni ne garantit le droit à l'alimentation. La nature antidémocratique et secrète des négociations confirme que ces accords ne profitent aucunement aux personnes. Ils détruisent les capacités des paysannes et des paysans à produire pour leurs communautés et les capacités des citoyennes et citoyens à décider du type d'aliments qu'ils souhaitent consommer. Ils n'encouragent pas le changement urgent dont nous avons besoin pour mettre fin au changement climatique. La délégation de LVC à Rome s'est engagée à défendre des politiques publiques de soutien à une agriculture paysanne et autochtone. Il s'agit de l'unique modèle agricole capable d'éradiquer la faim dans le monde. Nous demandons donc instamment au CSA d'évaluer, de contrôler et de subordonner les décisions politiques adoptées par d'autres organismes internationaux. Nous devons en toute urgence changer les règles du commerce pour aller vers un modèle en accord avec la souveraineté alimentaire en promouvant l'agroécologie et la réforme agraire. CONTACTS PRESSE LVC À ROME: Annelies Schorpion (EN, ES, FR, NL): annelies.schorpion(a)viacampesina.org, +39 3511556740 Ivan Mammana (EN, ES, FR, IT): cooperazione(a)aiab.it, +39 3341667401 ------------------------- [6][1] Partenariat transatlantique de commerce et d'investissement négocié entre l'UE et les USA [7][2] Accord de partenatiat transpacifique [8][3] Accord économqiue et commecial global entre l'UE et le Canada Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [2] http://viacampesina.org/fr/images/stories/nonomc/fta-rome.jpg [3] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [4] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [5] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [6] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [7] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux… [8] http://viacampesina.org/fr/index.php/actions-et-nements-mainmenu-26/non-aux…

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[Info EN] STOP TTIP, CETA and other destructive trade policies
by La Vía Campesina 13 Oct '14

13 Oct '14

STOP TTIP, CETA AND OTHER DESTRUCTIVE TRADE POLICIES [1] [2](Rome, 11th October) The delegation of La Via Campesina, gathered in Rome for the meeting of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), reiterates its rejection of the ongoing negotiations of several free trade agreements such as the TTIP [3][1], TPP [4][2] and CETA [5][3]. We do this within the framework of the Global Day of Action against TTIP and in solidarity with the 16th October, the Global Day of Action for Food Sovereignty. The delegation is participating in the 41st session of the CFS where the 10th anniversary of the Right to Food Guidelines is being celebrated. For small-scale farmers there is no reason to celebrate however, as the implementation of the Guidelines has not advanced at all. Conversely, trade negotiations, contrary to the Right to Food, are advancing at a concerning pace. The promotion of competition through the suppression of tariffs and standards is strengthening an agricultural and food system increasingly controlled by multinationals. The neoliberal trade paradigm is blind to social, environmental, and human rights standards and only benefits the profits and control of a few transnational corporations. The increased commodification of food does not respect or support the right to food. The anti-democratic and secretive nature of the negotiations confirms the analysis that people will not benefit from these agreements. They destroy the capacities of farmers to produce for local communities and of citizens to decide on the food they eat. They will not support the urgent shift we need to put a stop to climate change. The LVC delegation in Rome is committed to pursuing policies supporting sustainable peasant agriculture. This is the only agricultural model capable of eradicating hunger in the world and therefore LVC urges the CFS to evaluate, monitor and subordinate the policy decisions taken by other international bodies. We urgently need to shift trade rules to a model in line with food sovereignty that promotes agroecology and agrarian reform. LVC PRESS CONTACTS IN ROME: Annelies Schorpion (EN, ES, FR, NL): annelies.schorpion(a)viacampesina.org, +39 351155674 Ivan Mammana (EN, ES, FR, IT): cooperazione(a)aiab.it, +39 3341667401 ------------------------- [6][1] Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiated between the US and EU [7][2] Trans-Pacific Partnership [8][3] Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiated between the EU and Canada Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/fta/fta-rome.jpg [3] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [4] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [5] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [6] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [7] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr… [8] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-fr…

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[Info EN] October 16th, World Day of Action For Food Sovereignty and against transnational corporations
by La Vía Campesina 09 Oct '14

09 Oct '14

STOP TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS! OCTOBER 16TH, WORLD DAY OF ACTION FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS [1] Published on Thursday, 09 October 2014 23:20 _FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IS THE RIGHT OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLES TO PRODUCE AND TO CONSUME HEALTHY FOOD. FOOD CANNOT BE REDUCED TO A COMMODITY IN THE HANDS OF THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS._ [2]The international peasant and family farmer movement, La Via Campesina, is calling upon its member organisations across the world, and on grassroots organisations, allied social groups, and concerned consumers to be part of the World Day of Action for Peoples' Food Sovereignty and against transnational corporations, this coming October 16th, 2014. Every year, La Via Campesina organises this Day of solidarity, resistance, and mobilisation in order to make citizens aware of the current threats to Peoples' Food Sovereignty. To this end, we believe that it is important, and absolutely necessary ,to strengthen the alliance between those who work in the countryside and those who work in the city. The human right to food should not only refer to availability; it should also ensure that the available food is wholesome, healthy, and culturally appropriate. In 1996, in Rome, La Via Campesina introduced Food Sovereignty as the right of the world's peoples to decide upon their own food and farming policies, giving preference to local production and distribution systems - in the hands of peasants and family farmers - that meet the needs of the population. Today, taking advantage of the triple alliance between states, banks, and communications media, transnational agri-business gives widespread advertising coverage to the large-scale agricultural model, which, it is argued, is very highly productive and is able solve the food crisis. In reality, however, at this very moment, more than a billion people in the world suffer from hunger and starvation, while the transnational corporations, solely motivated by profit, continue to speculate with food. Agribusiness drives millions of peasants and family farmers, women and men, off their land and away from their territories, leaving the countryside without farmers, leading to a concentration of control over natural resoures such as land and water, and destroying biodiversity. Moreover, companies such as Monsanto, Cargill, Bunge, Dupont, and AMD, among others, have taken over and are monopolising world trade in grains and seeds, criminalising the ancestral practice of saving, and exchanging seeds. Agribusiness encourages the indiscriminate use of toxic agricultural chemicals, which both degrade the soil and threaten the lives of farmers, farmworkers, and urban consumers. On this World Day of Action taking place on October 16th, we peasants and farmers, women and men, of La Via Campesina reaffirm the urgent need for Comprehensive Agrarian Reform as a means of attaining Food Sovereignty; and we endorse agro-ecological production as the alternative farming practice that is consistent with our plans for the future as peasants and family farmers, which also mitigates the effects of climate change and cools the planet down. Therefore, on this October 16th - the World Day of Action for Food Sovereignty and against Transnational Corporations - we will be mobilising: taking over land, holding forums; organising agro-ecological festivals; occupying the streets of towns and cities. We will raise our voices in order to express our resistance to landgrabbing and to the use of toxic agricultural chemicals and genetically-modified seeds - and to call for Comprehensive Agrarian Reform and Food Sovereignty , which together imply a radical transformation towards a fair and decent food system for the world's peoples. _FOOD SOVEREIGNTY NOW!!_ We would like to record all of the actions taking place in your organisations everywhere in the world: photographs; forums; marches; video screenings; seed exchanges; agro-ecological festivals. Please send your information to: lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop-tr… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/stoptnc/efsa/Llamado%2016%20de%20…

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[Info EN] Mozambican Peasants vs. the Great African Land Grab
by La Vía Campesina 08 Oct '14

08 Oct '14

MOZAMBICAN PEASANTS VS. THE GREAT AFRICAN LAND GRAB Maputo -- With a shimmering coastline stretching for more than 1,500 miles along the Indian Ocean, heartland game parks rivaling the Serengeti and a cornucopia of natural resources -- located mostly in land used by humble farming communities -- Mozambique is getting quite a lot of attention these days as one of Africa's most upcoming investment hubs and in vogue destinations. Investors have not wasted any time in carving out their stake in the country two decades into the relative stability following a 16-year civil war on the heels of independence. The cash-strapped Mozambican state technically owns all of the land within its borders, offering leases that are renewable up to 99 years to foreign governments and corporations for agribusiness or extractive industrial megaprojects. One such example is ProSavana [1], a Japanese and Brazilian-led development project with the blessing of the Mozambican government. ProSavana has earmarked land in the Nacala Corridor spanning three provinces and affecting 19 districts for monocrops such as soy for export. ProSavana, not unlike related land deals for coal and gas extraction, comes with hefty promises of economic growth marked by mass job creation and export potential. But under the surface, investments all too often uproot lives and livelihoods for those who depend on small-scale farming, fishing and pastoralism -- more than 70 percent of the population in the case of Mozambique. Many point to these projects as undisputed resource grabs [2] woven into the fabric of a greater neocolonial project in Mozambique and throughout Africa. "The idea of mass job creation is a myth," said Vicente Adriano, staff researcher for the Mozambican Peasant's Union (UNAC) [3], "The bottom line is that these projects create dependency within the class that has been historically, and continues to be, neglected by government policies and development plans." As a social movement, UNAC members pride themselves on being a revolutionary bunch. "Mobilization through resistance creates alternative forms of political sovereignty," Adriano offered. It was in that spirit that UNAC brought both its lead organizers and vulnerable farmers from each of Mozambique's ten provinces together in Maputo on October 1st and 2nd for its third annual peasant-led international conference on land. The conference came as the culmination of a series of regional Mozambican gatherings, where delegates shared concerns and discussed crosscutting strategies as means of opposition to land and resource grabs. "Our land is being occupied without our consultation," shared Helena Terra, a peasant from the central region, an area marked by small-scale vegetable and grain production that is now threatened by massive foreign-owned eucalyptus crops and coal exploration in residential areas. Terra explained that the once potable water in her village was now polluted by industrial activity, and unsafe for consumption. Water is not her only concern. In 2015, new coal projects seek to displace at least a hundred families -- but with the help of fellow UNAC organizers, Terra is undertaking legal measures to attempt to recover the land. "United as farmers, we have to solve these problems ourselves, and not wait for outsiders," said Augusto Mafigo, UNAC's president. The agricultural group's tactics -- from agroecology for food sovereignty to agrarian reform -- are grounded in political education and horizontal learning exchanges among its members, as well as with other African and international movements. Last week's conference featured a presentation from the Venezuelan ambassador, representing a country that has been working to radically reorient its food system to serve its poor majority. Another example was an intervention on seed saving and agrarian transformation from neighboring Zimbabwe Small Holder Organic Forum (ZIMSOFF) [4], which UNAC works closely with through their joint participation in Via Campesina [5]. Now the largest transnational agrarian movement in the world, Via Campesina has member organizations in 73 countries -- representing over 250 million peasants -- that fight for access to and control over land and its resources. "Via Campesina is a connection to what people want, as opposed to the very different reality of what is happening on the ground," said Renaldo Chingore, a leader in both UNAC and Via Campesina at the Africa regional level. Ten years ago, UNAC became Via Campesina's first African member. Today it plays a headlining role in supporting its regional and global growth, at a time when Africa is a priority for outreach and expansion -- due in large part to land and resource grabs such as those in Mozambique redefining the norm. Against such policies and sizeable odds, peasants throughout Africa are determined to hold onto -- quite literally -- the roots of their ancestors. UNAC's experience in the Mozambican field may just provide a game plan for doing so. First published on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salena-tramel/mozambican-peasants-vs-th_b_594… [6] Links: ------ [1] https://www.prosavana.gov.mz/index.php?num_lang=2 [2] http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4703-leaked-prosavana-master-plan-conf… [3] http://www.unac.org.mz [4] http://www.esaff.org/Zimbabwe/ [5] http://viacampesina.org/en/ [6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salena-tramel/mozambican-peasants-vs-th_b_594…

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[Info EN] Newsletter La Via Campesina - September 2014
by La Vía Campesina 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

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[Info EN] International Symposium on Agroecology at the FAO in Rome
by La Vía Campesina 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND TRADE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON AGROECOLOGY AT THE FAO IN ROME [1] Published on Thursday, 25 September 2014 14:20 "TODAY A WINDOW WAS OPENED IN WHAT FOR 50 YEARS HAS BEEN THE CATHEDRAL OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION" [2]PRESS RELEASE- LA VIA CAMPESINA The _International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutritional Security_ was held on the 18th and 19th of September of 2014, at the headquarters of the Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Rome. This marked the first time that the FAO has ever officially and directly addressed the topic of agroecology. In his closing remarks at the Symposium, José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO, said that: "Today a Window was opened in what for 50 years has been the Cathedral of the Green Revolution." The delegation of La Via Campesina, that participated in the Symposium, welcomes this opening, but recommends caution, given the attempts to coopt agroecology that were observed at the event. According to La Via Campesina, the science, practices and movement of agroecology are the product of centuries of accumulated peasant and indigenous knowledge, knowledge of how food was produced for humanity since long before farm chemicals were invented. This knowledge has been organized through a 'dialog of knowledges' (dialogo de saberes) with the western sciences of ecology, agronomy, rural sociology, etc. Support for agroecology, among rural social movements, consumers, environmentalists and others, has grown a lot in recent decades, in part because of it's sharp critique of, and it's alternatives to, the badly-named 'Green Revolution' of industrial agriculture. For La Via, peasant agroecology is a fundamental building block in the construction of food sovereignty. Governments and institutions, the majority of which respond to the interests of national and transnational agribusiness, have resisted agroecology. In fact, to speak of the alternatives embodied in agroecology, has until now been taboo in institutions like the FAO. Still, this situation has been changing of late, though only partially. The rapid degradation of soils and other productive resources brought about industrial farming practices, and climate change, have now created growing uncertainty about the future of industrial agriculture. And the number of scientists with studies and data that show agroecology to be a superior approach, in terms of both productivity and sustainability, is growing. The result has been more institutional opening to agroecology. But the opening is relative. While social movements like La Via Campesina see agroecology as the alternative to industrial agriculture, and highlight it's potential help in transforming grim rural realities, the new institutional opening is geared more toward a scaled-back version of agroecology. This version is limited to seeing agroecology as nothing more than the source of a few new tools for the toolbox of industrial agriculture; in other words, of methods to reduce the negative impacts of industrial farming practices on future productivity. Those who promote this shrunken approach use names like 'sustainable' or 'ecological intensification,' or 'climate smart agriculture,' to refer the erroneous idea that agroecology is compatible with large extensions of industrial monoculture, pesticides and GMOs. For La Via Campesina, this is not agroecology, but rather is a blatant attempt at cooptation, which should be denounced and resisted. A decent sized delegation from La Via attended the Symposium at FAO, with delegates from Mozambique, India, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Italy. Three of the delegates were speakers. The delegation arrived expecting the worst, ready for a pitched battle against the cooptation of agroecology. The reality was actually somewhat more refreshing, as the majority of the scientists who were invited as expert speakers, presented visions of agroecology that were quite similar to the vision of La Via. They pointed to agroecology as an alternative, for transformation, and highlighted it's social, political, economic and cultural contents, in addition to the technical content. This left the tendency toward cooptation as a minority position, though it was present, and evident. As a result, the summary of conclusions from the Symposium, presented by the reporting team on the second day, emphasized positive points, including the affirmations that: * agroecology is based on a set of principles, and is not a tool box nor a set of recipes, * agroecology implicitly questions the contemporary agrifood model, and promotes a radical transformation, which would place peasants and family farmers at the center of the social process, * agroecology is based on a dialog of knowledges, and thus must continually link science with peasant knowledge, innovation and practices. And furthermore, that the principal challenges to be faced, must address complex but urgent issues, such as: * public policies that support and promote agroecological transformation at local, national and regional scales, * the alliance of farmers with conscious and responsible consumers, based on the need for a radical transformation toward a socially just food system, * support for the efforts by rural social movements to bring agroecology to a territorial scale. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian peasant leader, and member of the International Coordination Committee (ICC) of La Via Campesina, said that "this Symposium represents a step in the right direction for FAO," but he issued a warning about the developing conflict "between good and evil," over the definition and future of agroecology. Given this dispute, he spoke of the need to specify 'agroecological peasant agriculture,' because "agroecology is a way of life for us, not just a mode of production." Rilma Román, a leader of the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba (ANAP), who is also a member of the ICC of La Via, highlighted the centrality of "peasant knowledge and practice as the true basis of agroecology." She insisted that in countries like Cuba, "peasant agroecology is not theoretical, rather it is already a reality." Andrea Ferrante, leader of the Italian Association of Biological Farmers (AIAB), emphasized that, "agroecology is also a reality in Europe," though he complained that "the fact of agroecology in the North was pretty much ignored in this Symposium." Marciano da Silva, of the Small Farmers' Movement of Brazil (MPA), called for vigilance, as we will face ever more attempts by agribusiness and institutions to coopt agroecology. He remarked that while the FAO, and the ministers of agriculture from several countries who spoke at the Symposium, made public commitments to agroecology, "it is up to us to hold them to those commitments." Renaldo Chingore João, from the National Peasants' Union of Mozambique (UNAC), underlined the importance of the tacit recognition by FAO that "the Green Revolution is in rapid decline," and said that "it is important to transmit this message to our African governments." Nandini Kardahalli Singarigowda, a successful agroecological producer from the Karnataka State Farmers Association of India (KRRS), said that "we peasant women of KRRS in India are already successfully promoting agroecology," and asked, therefore: "why can't the FAO do the same?" Finally, Chavannes Jean Baptiste of the Via Campesina Haití, explained that "agroecology is above all a social and organizational process." "It requires," he said, "peasant organizations and rural social movements who are capable of building social processes based on horizontal learning and peasant protagonism." FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND TRADE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON AGROECOLOGY AT THE FAO IN ROME [1] Published on Thursday, 25 September 2014 14:20 "TODAY A WINDOW WAS OPENED IN WHAT FOR 50 YEARS HAS BEEN THE CATHEDRAL OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION" [2]PRESS RELEASE- LA VIA CAMPESINA The _International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutritional Security_ was held on the 18th and 19th of September of 2014, at the headquarters of the Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Rome. This marked the first time that the FAO has ever officially and directly addressed the topic of agroecology. In his closing remarks at the Symposium, José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO, said that: "Today a Window was opened in what for 50 years has been the Cathedral of the Green Revolution." The delegation of La Via Campesina, that participated in the Symposium, welcomes this opening, but recommends caution, given the attempts to coopt agroecology that were observed at the event. According to La Via Campesina, the science, practices and movement of agroecology are the product of centuries of accumulated peasant and indigenous knowledge, knowledge of how food was produced for humanity since long before farm chemicals were invented. This knowledge has been organized through a 'dialog of knowledges' (dialogo de saberes) with the western sciences of ecology, agronomy, rural sociology, etc. Support for agroecology, among rural social movements, consumers, environmentalists and others, has grown a lot in recent decades, in part because of it's sharp critique of, and it's alternatives to, the badly-named 'Green Revolution' of industrial agriculture. For La Via, peasant agroecology is a fundamental building block in the construction of food sovereignty. Governments and institutions, the majority of which respond to the interests of national and transnational agribusiness, have resisted agroecology. In fact, to speak of the alternatives embodied in agroecology, has until now been taboo in institutions like the FAO. Still, this situation has been changing of late, though only partially. The rapid degradation of soils and other productive resources brought about industrial farming practices, and climate change, have now created growing uncertainty about the future of industrial agriculture. And the number of scientists with studies and data that show agroecology to be a superior approach, in terms of both productivity and sustainability, is growing. The result has been more institutional opening to agroecology. But the opening is relative. While social movements like La Via Campesina see agroecology as the alternative to industrial agriculture, and highlight it's potential help in transforming grim rural realities, the new institutional opening is geared more toward a scaled-back version of agroecology. This version is limited to seeing agroecology as nothing more than the source of a few new tools for the toolbox of industrial agriculture; in other words, of methods to reduce the negative impacts of industrial farming practices on future productivity. Those who promote this shrunken approach use names like 'sustainable' or 'ecological intensification,' or 'climate smart agriculture,' to refer the erroneous idea that agroecology is compatible with large extensions of industrial monoculture, pesticides and GMOs. For La Via Campesina, this is not agroecology, but rather is a blatant attempt at cooptation, which should be denounced and resisted. A decent sized delegation from La Via attended the Symposium at FAO, with delegates from Mozambique, India, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Italy. Three of the delegates were speakers. The delegation arrived expecting the worst, ready for a pitched battle against the cooptation of agroecology. The reality was actually somewhat more refreshing, as the majority of the scientists who were invited as expert speakers, presented visions of agroecology that were quite similar to the vision of La Via. They pointed to agroecology as an alternative, for transformation, and highlighted it's social, political, economic and cultural contents, in addition to the technical content. This left the tendency toward cooptation as a minority position, though it was present, and evident. As a result, the summary of conclusions from the Symposium, presented by the reporting team on the second day, emphasized positive points, including the affirmations that: * agroecology is based on a set of principles, and is not a tool box nor a set of recipes, * agroecology implicitly questions the contemporary agrifood model, and promotes a radical transformation, which would place peasants and family farmers at the center of the social process, * agroecology is based on a dialog of knowledges, and thus must continually link science with peasant knowledge, innovation and practices. And furthermore, that the principal challenges to be faced, must address complex but urgent issues, such as: * public policies that support and promote agroecological transformation at local, national and regional scales, * the alliance of farmers with conscious and responsible consumers, based on the need for a radical transformation toward a socially just food system, * support for the efforts by rural social movements to bring agroecology to a territorial scale. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian peasant leader, and member of the International Coordination Committee (ICC) of La Via Campesina, said that "this Symposium represents a step in the right direction for FAO," but he issued a warning about the developing conflict "between good and evil," over the definition and future of agroecology. Given this dispute, he spoke of the need to specify 'agroecological peasant agriculture,' because "agroecology is a way of life for us, not just a mode of production." Rilma Román, a leader of the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba (ANAP), who is also a member of the ICC of La Via, highlighted the centrality of "peasant knowledge and practice as the true basis of agroecology." She insisted that in countries like Cuba, "peasant agroecology is not theoretical, rather it is already a reality." Andrea Ferrante, leader of the Italian Association of Biological Farmers (AIAB), emphasized that, "agroecology is also a reality in Europe," though he complained that "the fact of agroecology in the North was pretty much ignored in this Symposium." Marciano da Silva, of the Small Farmers' Movement of Brazil (MPA), called for vigilance, as we will face ever more attempts by agribusiness and institutions to coopt agroecology. He remarked that while the FAO, and the ministers of agriculture from several countries who spoke at the Symposium, made public commitments to agroecology, "it is up to us to hold them to those commitments." Renaldo Chingore João, from the National Peasants' Union of Mozambique (UNAC), underlined the importance of the tacit recognition by FAO that "the Green Revolution is in rapid decline," and said that "it is important to transmit this message to our African governments." Nandini Kardahalli Singarigowda, a successful agroecological producer from the Karnataka State Farmers Association of India (KRRS), said that "we peasant women of KRRS in India are already successfully promoting agroecology," and asked, therefore: "why can't the FAO do the same?" Finally, Chavannes Jean Baptiste of the Via Campesina Haití, explained that "agroecology is above all a social and organizational process." "It requires," he said, "peasant organizations and rural social movements who are capable of building social processes based on horizontal learning and peasant protagonism." Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/food-sovereign… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/chavennes%20roma%202014.jpg

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[Info EN] UN-masking Climate Smart Agriculture
by La Vía Campesina 23 Sep '14

23 Sep '14

UN-MASKING CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE [1] Published on Tuesday, 23 September 2014 15:13 PRESS RELEASE INTERNATIONAL PEASANT MOVEMENT/MOVIMIENTO CAMPESINO INTERNACIONAL [2]History presents itself first as tragedy, and the second time as a farce. As women, men, peasants, smallholder family farmers, migrant, rural workers, indigenous, and youth of La Via Campesina, we denounce climate smart agriculture which is presented to us as a solution to climate change and as a mechanism for sustainable development. For us, it is clear that underneath its pretense of addressing the persistent poverty in the countryside and climate change, there is nothing new. Rather, this is a continuation of a project first begun with the Green Revolution in the early 1940's and continued through the 70's and 80's by the World Bank's Poverty Reduction projects and the corporate interests involved. These projects, such as the so-called Green Revolution, decimated numerous peasant economies, particularly in the South, to the extent that many countries, like México for example, that were self-sufficient in food production, became dependent on the North to feed their population within a short couple of decades. The result of these projects, dictated by industrial capital's need for expansion, was the coopting of traditional agricultural producers and production and their insertion into the present industrial agriculture and food regime. A regime that is based on increased use of toxic chemicals, dependent on fossil fuel inputs and technology, increasing exploitation of agricultural and rural workers, with its resulting loss of biodiversity; a food system that is now under the control of corporations and large industrial farmers, the main beneficiaries of these projects. The result has been the loss of food security and sovereignty, transforming entire countries that were once net food exporters into net food importers. This is not so much that they cannot produce food, but because now, instead, they produce commodity crops used to produce industrialized foods, fuels, manufactured products for sale, and for speculation in the world financial markets. Today, some of the same actors of these previous projects, such as the World Bank, are the forces behind the imposition of climate smart agriculture as a solution to climate change and to increase income of the rural poor using the same failed thesis that to increase incomes one must increase productivity. It is clear that the intention is to create a market for the Green Revolution as a solution to climate change, poverty and as a proposal for sustainable development in rural areas. We identify this as part of a larger process of "green" structural adjustment projects required by an economic system and the political elites in distress, because they have exhausted other places for enormous speculative financial investments and now see agriculture and agricultural land as the new frontier. Climate smart agriculture begins with deception by not making a differentiation between the negative effects of industrialized agriculture and the real solutions offered by traditional sustainable peasant agriculture which has contributed to alleviating poverty, hunger and remediation of climate change. To the contrary, climate smart agriculture equates and equally blames all forms of agricultural production for the negative effects that in fact only industrialized agricultural and food production has caused, and fails to recognize and accept the differences between "agri-cultures" and agricultural production methods. The agricultural activity that has most contributed to greenhouse gas emissions has been industrial agriculture, not smallholder sustainable agriculture. Climate smart agriculture will lead to further consolidation of land, pushing peasant and family farmers towards World Bank Projects, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other institutions, creating dependency on so-called new technologies through their complete packages that include prescriptions of "climate smart varieties", inputs, and credit, while ignoring traditional tried and true adaptive farming techniques and stewardship of seed varieties in practice by farmers. Reliance on World Bank promoted methods of production and genetically modified seed varieties will only increase the vulnerability of peasants and small-scale producers, as those packages will not allow them to adapt to climate change, nor will they be able to improve their incomes, and will only result in pushing them further into debt and increased dependency. As the Green Revolution meant the imposition of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides as requirement to access loans and technical support, now it is the imposition of transgenic and biotechnology for the same requirements, and all under the name of productivity. The idea of increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable way, or what is now called "sustainable intensification", is false. Even more so, when one considers that raising yield per hectare through production intensification only increases the income for corporations, financial market speculators, and large landholding farmers. So called "sustainable intensification" is not really about increasing yield per acre, it is more about green-washing large scale industrialized production following the old adage "get big or get out". Increasingly, peasant and smallholder family farmers have to produce crops for the commodity market and not for local and regional food systems. They are producing for corporations who are manufacturing unhealthy processed food, fuel and supplies to make other products such as farmed -meat and pharmaceuticals. Peasants and small-scale family farmers will have no choice but to continue to accept the task of feeding the insatiable capitalist food production machine and its speculative activities in the financial markets. This intensification of production is also an effort to reduce the cost of labor, which means further degrading working conditions, and lower salaries for migrant workers. Most peasants and small holders will be cast aside because there's no room for them in industrial agriculture except as landless peasants and one of millions of migrants that are seeking to try their luck as low wage laborers in the cities and countryside. Ultimately, climate smart agriculture tries to cover-up and hide the need for genuine agriculture and land reform. It also hides, and lies about, the issue of scarcity of land and natural resources. Land and natural resources are only scarce for peasant and small holding farmers. Poverty exists as a result of lack of access to land, land tenure and use, the unfair treatment and wages of workers and an unrelenting exploitation of their labor in order to meet the needs of capitalism, all of which is shaping the madness we are facing today. In addition, climate smart agriculture, like the Reduction for Emission on Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), will expand the carbon market and its use for financial speculation. The possibility of big profits with investments in carbon credits generated from farmlands involved in climate smart agriculture projects will increase speculation in the carbon market, leading to further "carbon land grabs" by large-scale investors and producers, and the further displacement of peasant and smallholder farmers, just as REDD displaces indigenous people. Under this climate smart agriculture framework, there is little hope of reducing and removing greenhouse gases, trying to solve food insecurity or any significant rural economic and social development. The problems of poverty, food insecurity and climate change are not market failures, but rather are structural flaws that will persist and worsen with its implementation. We need systemic change NOW! Today, just as in the past, we are ready to fight against the false solutions of the capitalist "green economy" and for real solutions to climate change and poverty, through our demands for climate and environmental justice. We continue to propose and put into practice wherever we can agroecological production and the construction of people's food sovereignty. We consciously do this as another space to bring about the structural changes that we really need to deal with the issues of poverty, climate change and peoples' inability to feed themselves. We call on all social movements gathered in New York to denounce climate smart agriculture as a false solution, oppose the launching of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the UN Climate Summit in New York City, and to join us in the struggle for food sovereignty, and for a different model of agriculture and food production that will provide a just economic well being for small-scale farmers and their communities while producing enough healthy food to meet people's nutritional needs and guaranteed access to food for everyone. Any method of production and consumption, to be truly sustainable, must enrich and protect Mother Earth. (Download PDF [3]) NO TO CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE! YES TO LAND REFORM AND AGROECOLOGY FOR PEOPLE'S FOOD SOVEREIGNTY! GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE GLOBALIZE HOPE! For more information during the NYC Climate Summit, you can contact: Dena Hoff, Antolin Huascar or Carlos Marentes Jr., at (413) 345-1137 (USA). Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/1670-un… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/logo%202014.JPG [3] http://viacampesina.org/downloads/pdf/en/LVC%20UNmasking%20CSA%20_ENG-FINAL…

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[Info EN] Nyeleni Newsletter: Community struggles for the defence of their territories - New edition online!
by La Vía Campesina 15 Sep '14

15 Sep '14

_EN COMMUNITY STRUGGLES FOR THE DEFENCE OF THEIR TERRITORIES_ [1] The new edition of the Nyéléni Newsletter is now online! LANDGRABBING CONTINUES UNABATED WORLDWIDE. It is not only about the use of industrial agricultural means to engage in the monoculture of primary resources for exportation, or the delocalised production of foodstuffs for other countries. It implies _extractivism_: control of water, mining, oil industries, deforestation, drug trafficking, environmental services and REDD projects (land areas held in disregards or so called marginal lands), and the subsequent speculation on these, followed by real estate, tourism, urban development, military geopolitics and much more. In this edition of the Nyéléni Newsletter we want to make an overview of this process and of the possibilities of resisting it from our communities. _Click here to download the english edition_ [1]_ _or read it directly in the website at www.nyeleni.org [2] ! For any further information, please contact info(a)nyeleni.org PLEASE CIRCULATE IT TO YOUR CONTACTS! Links: ------ [1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=59 [2] http://www.nyeleni.org

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[Info EN] U.S. Farmworkers and Palestinian Farmers share 2014 Food Sovereignty Prize
by La Vía Campesina 11 Sep '14

11 Sep '14

U.S. FARMWORKERS AND PALESTINIAN FARMERS SHARE 2014 FOOD SOVEREIGNTY PRIZE _HONOREES REPRESENT COMMUNITIES DEFENDING THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS TO FOOD IN THE FACE OF POLICIES OF LAND AND WATER GRABBING, MIGRATION, AND MILITARIZATION_ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 9, 2014 Des Moines, IA -- The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) is honored to name the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) of Palestine, based in Gaza and the West Bank, and Community to Community Development /Comunidad a Comunidad (C2C) of Bellingham, Washington, as co-recipients of the 2014 Food Sovereignty Prize. Their stories of continuous struggle to defend the rights of their communities - farmers and fishers in the occupied Palestinian territories and migrant Mexican farm workers in Washington State, both seeking to produce their own food, on their own land, in their home communities - stand in stark contrast to the storylines coming from agribusiness: that technological changes to crops can meet human needs and resolve hunger. Palestine has been under Israeli occupation for decades and this summer faced heightened pressure, including thousands killed and many more injured from bombings, destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, farms, and fishing boats, and hundreds of arrests without due process, and the continued building of settlements on Palestinian farmland. UAWC builds farmers cooperatives and seed banks, and supports women's leadership, while continuing to seek its members' human rights to food, land, and water. "This important prize inspires UAWC to carry on its work in defending Palestinian farmers' rights against the brutal Israeli violations, both through supporting small-scale farmers and fishermen toward their food sovereignty and rights to land and water, and also through coordination with local and international movements for social justice and human rights," said Khaled Hidan, General Director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Palestine. In Washington State, amid failed immigration policies that criminalize working families, Community to Community Development has supported and worked with immigrant farm workers to develop farm worker-owned cooperatives, organize a successful nutrition education project called Cocinas Sanas, and promote domestic fair trade in regional assemblies and meetings. Most recently, C2C has supported an emerging farm worker union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, and organized a national boycott of Sakuma Farms, their employer, who withheld pay, provided poor housing, and has since retaliated against the workers. Familias Unidas por la Justicia recently won a settlement for wage theft and had a Superior Court Judge rule uphold their right to organize - but their fight is not over. "In honoring Community to Community, the USFSA honors indigenous farmworkers in the U.S. Displaced by NAFTA, these peasant farmers from Mexico are practicing a tradition of struggle for justice. Together, C2C and Familias Unidas are promoting food sovereignty in rural Washington State and challenging the corporate agricultural interests that are controlling our food system," said Rosalinda Guillen, Executive Director of Community to Community Development. The Food Sovereignty Prize will be awarded on the evening of October 15in Des Moines, IA, at the Historical Building. The Food Sovereignty Prize challenges the view that simply producing more through industrial agriculture and aquaculture will end hunger or reduce suffering. The world currently produces more than enough food, but unbalanced access to wealth means the inadequate access to food. Real solutions protect the rights to land, seeds and water of family farmers and indigenous communities worldwide and promote sustainable agriculture through agroecology. The communities around the world who struggle to grow their food and take care of their land have long known that destructive political, economic, and social policies, as well as militarization, deprive communities of their rights. These are the root causes of want, hunger and poverty. The USFSA represents a network of food producers and labor, environmental, faith-based, social justice and anti-hunger advocacy organizations. Additional supporters of the 2014 Food Sovereignty Prize include Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - Des Moines, and Occupy the World Food Prize, along with media sponsor EcoWatch. For event updates and background on food sovereignty and the prize winners, visit www.foodsovereigntyprize.org. Also, visit the Food Sovereignty Prize on Facebook (facebook.com/FoodSovereigntyPrize) and join the conversation on Twitter (#foodsovprize) CONTACT: Adam Mason, State Policy Organizing Director Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (515) 282-0484, adam(a)iowacci.org Lisa Griffith, National Family Farm Coalition US Food Sovereignty Alliance (773) 319-5838, lisa(a)nffc.net

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[Info EN] Newsletter La Vía Campesina - August 2014
by La Vía Campesina 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

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