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[Info EN] Latest Edition | Nyéléni Newsletter: Message of pastoralist communities, a voice from the land
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '21

10 Dec '21

NYELENI : INTRODUCING THE MESSAGE OF PASTORALIST COMMUNITIES, A VOICE FROM THE LAND THE NEW EDITION OF THE NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER IS ONLINE! ------------------------- The latest edition of the Nyéléni newsletter throws light on the lives and lived realities of pastoralist communities around the world. More than half of the Earth's surface is made up of grasslands and rangelands. For thousands of years pastoralist communities have domesticated animals and managed ecosystems in a sustainable way, producing a diversity of cultures and food systems that are adapted and resilient. Associated biodiversity has always co-existed with pastoralism. Pastoralism is based on the extensive use of territory, sometimes grasslands but also forests or cropland after harvests, marginal lands and other spaces that very often are not suitable for agriculture. Pastoralism is practised by between 200 and 500 million people worldwide in highly variable environments in nearly every country of the world from the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic Circle. But today pastoralism is threatened as never before by the forced industrialization of livestock farming. DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER FOR MORE: ENGLISH [1] SPANISH [2] FRENCH [3] Illustration by Fernando Garcia Dory/European Shepard Network / WAMIP ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=171 [2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=172 [3] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=173

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[Info EN] Illustrated Book: “The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina”
by La Via Campesina 02 Dec '21

02 Dec '21

On 25th November 2021, La Via Campesina's global campaign to eliminate gender-based violence published an illustrated book that traces _THE PATH OF PEASANT & POPULAR FEMINISM _in the movement. During the month of November, members of LVC in all continents, amplified our global solidarity actions that called for an end to violence against women and girls. The launch of this book coincided with these actions, and echoes all our demands and our collective critique and condemnation of a capitalist and patriarchal system that perpetuates these violations. As La Via Campesina, we demand justice and dignity for those affected by the violence and condemn the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. It is time to say "_enough!_" to gender-based violence experienced by women, girls and non-binary genders. The book is a vital political-pedagogical tool in our struggle, aiding our training processes at the grassroots, regions and continents. Organized by the Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina and beautifully illustrated by the _FemGarabat Feminist Collective_ of the Basque Country, this book synthesis the historical struggle of peasant and indigenous women around the world. The artists who worked on the book also expressed their support and respect for these struggles when they said, _"As a feminist graphic collective, we use illustrations as a tool for transmitting ideas that we believe in and value. Through our work we had the opportunity to learn about women's struggles from all over the world and, in that sense, working with La Vía Campesina has been a very enriching experience. It has been a pleasure to visually illustrate these diverse struggles, those in which Femgarabat firmly believes"_ Twenty-eight pages of stunning graphic work reveal the role of women in the global fight for Food Sovereignty and their centrality in promoting Peasant and Popular Feminism in their territories and organizations. It also offers several testimonies of peasant leaders from across continents in implementing the 'Global Campaign to End Violence Against Women' promoted by LVC since 2008. ------------------------- GET YOUR COPY TODAY AND SHARE IT WIDELY WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION, REGION AND AMONG FRIENDS AND ALLIES. THE PUBLICATION IS AVAILABLE IN ES [1], FR [2] AND EN [3]. YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A VERSION IN YOUR LOCAL LANGUAGE HERE [4]. ------------------------- NOTE: This illustrated book draws its inspiration from a handbook [5] that La Via Campesina had launched early this year. Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/es/nueva-publicacion-grafica-el-caminar-del-femini… [2] https://viacampesina.org/fr/nouvelle-publication-litineraire-du-feminisme-p… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/VIA-CAMPESIN… [4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/jmyLf2Rbwci23w2 [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Peasant-and-…

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[Info EN] News: La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe
by La Via Campesina 01 Dec '21

01 Dec '21

La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe. AFTER ELIZABETH MPOFU, MORGAN ODY BECOMES THE GENERAL COORDINATOR OF LVC. ------------------------- BAGNOLET, FRANCE | 01 DECEMBER 2021: The International Operative Secretariat of La Via Campesina, the global movement that represents around 200 million peasant farmers worldwide, moved this week to Bagnolet, France, hosted by European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) and its member organisation La Confédération Paysanne, in line with the organisation's principle of geographical rotation between the continents. With this step, Morgan Ody - a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France, assumes the General Coordination of La Via Campesina from Elizabeth Mpofu (Harare, Zimbabwe). In the context of the current climate, biodiversity and resource crises, this responsibility can help underline that the defence of peasant agriculture and food sovereignty is essential to promote climate, economic and social justice and establish sustainable and fair food chains. For the past 25 years, small and medium-scale farmers from La Via Campesina have fought for peasants' rights, agrarian reform and food sovereignty, i.e. the right of peoples to decide how and by whom food is produced. We have worked tirelessly to feed the population and ensure that past, present and future generations have healthy, fresh and culturally appropriate food. However, as peasants, we are under constant attack. Peasant Agroecology, the solution we offer to climate and food issues is not only ignored but actively destroyed by incoherent policies, industrial monopolies and neo-liberal capitalism. Continuing the struggle against industrial agriculture and the power of transnational companies, the member organisations of LVC are committed and determined to defend peasant agriculture. Our solidarity is our strength! At present, the world finds itself at a crucial crossroads, and in this context, the arrival of the secretariat of a global movement so strongly committed to agroecology and food sovereignty in Europe is an opportunity to ensure the truly sustainable solutions of small-scale farmers are reflected in the policies implemented at an international, European and national levels. As Morgan Ody commented during the Secretariat transition ceremony held in Bagnolet on 30 November 2021, peasant farmers are key to building a future based on social justice: fair prices for producers and fair wages for rural workers, harmony with the natural environment, international solidarity, equality and dignity. > _"We, the peasants, the indigenous peoples, the rural women, the agricultural workers, the youth of our rural areas, produce while reviving biodiversity and emitting very few greenhouse gases: mixed farming and livestock farming, like pastoralism or traditional agro-forestry, are models of energy saving, carbon capture and maintenance of environments rich in wild and cultivated diversity. Thus, with our know-how and skills, peasant agriculture f__eeds__ o__ver __70% of world's population with less than 30% of the productive resources__[2]__."_ Across all levels, united in our vision of food sovereignty, the regions and members of La Via Campesina will continue to work to ensure that the human rights of all those who live and work in rural areas are respected, for the good of the planet and its population. ------------------------- FOR MEDIA QUERIES, CONTACT: PRESS[AT]VIACAMPESINA[DOT]ORG ------------------------- NOTES [1] United Nations Declaration of Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas [1] [2] Who will feed us? [2], ETC group, 2017 [3] LVC Organizational Brochure, edition 2021 [3] [4] Link to the Transition Ceremony [4] Links: ------ [1] https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1650694?ln=en [2] https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/etc-whowillfeed… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Broch… [4] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/videos/1135134243920612

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[Info EN] October Newsletter | Special Edition - 25 Years of Struggle for Food Sovereignty!
by La Via Campesina 23 Nov '21

23 Nov '21

SPECIAL EDITION DONATE [1] 25 YEARS OF OUR COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY This October, La Via Campesina together with allies in the gobal movement for food sovereignty celebrated 25 years of peasant-led efforts and campaign to bring food sovereignty to reality. FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR HIGHLIGHTS. [2] FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, A MANIFESTO FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET | OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM LA VIA CAMPESINA [3] WEBINARS & WORKSHOPS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS WHO ARE PART OF THE STRUGGLES FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY HELD WEBINARS, FORUMS, WORKSHOPS AND VIRTUAL ACTIONS. CATCH UP ON ALL VIRTUAL EVENTS HERE. [4] REGIONAL ACTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF LA VIA CAMPESINA HELD SEVERAL ACTIONS. _CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE GALLERY OF EVENTS. [5]_ PRESS RELEASE & MORE OUR HISTORIC TASK IS TO ENSURE THAT NO HUMAN BEING GOES HUNGRY. _READ THE PRESS RELEASE [6]. _ To read a collection of articles and announcements celebrating our collective struggles, FOLLOW THIS LINK. [7] POSTCARDS & POSTERS This month, we are also releasing a series of postcards which capture the vision of Food Sovereignty that La Via Campesina had put forth in 1996. Check them all out here. [8] To download the communciation kit, follow this link. [9] YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL! YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE AUTONOMY OF OUR MOVEMENT ------------------------- As a supporter who has contributed financial resources to La Via Campesina, and as an activist who joins us on the streets and in the fields, your support is always welcome and put to good use. YOU CAN RENEW YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO LA VIA CAMPESINA BY CLICKING HERE [1]. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [15] For questions or comments, email lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Website: www.viacampesina.org [14] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [16] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [15] Links: ------ [1] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/celebrating-food-sovereignty-highlights-of-soli… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [4] https://linktr.ee/laviacampesina [5] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6157626800974506&type=3 [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/16oct-our-historic-task-is-to-ensure-that-no-hu… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/25-years-of-food-sovereignty/ [8] https://viacampesina.org/en/the-1996-rome-food-sovereignty-declaration-in-p… [9] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/E9y4r2Sy5pS88Y6 [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [11] http://www.facebook.com/ViaCampesinaOfficial [12] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [13] http://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official [14] http://www.viacampesina.org [15] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [16] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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[Info EN] Call to Action | 25 Nov | Peasant Women Fighting for their Rights and against Hunger and Violence!
by La Via Campesina 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

NOVEMBER 25, 2021, IS THE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. LA VIA CAMPESINA CALLS UPON ITS MEMBERS AND ALLIES TO ORGANIZE ACTIVITIES TO RAISE AWARENESS, GIVE VISIBILITY, STAND IN SOLIDARITY AND DENOUNCE THE ALARMING LEVELS OF VIOLENCE EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN, CHILDREN AND LGBTQIA* PEOPLE WORLDWIDE; A VIOLENCE THAT HAS ONLY WORSENED WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. SOCIETY CANNOT IGNORE THESE MULTIPLE FORMS OF VIOLENCE IMPACT MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION. WE REQUIRE PUBLIC POLICIES THAT GUARANTEE THEIR RIGHTS AND ASSURE DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR WOMEN AND COMMUNITIES. The world is confronting multiple structural crises on the social, economic and political fronts. Hunger has been on the rise since 2015, disproportionately affecting women and children. Neo-liberal financial packages pushed by IMF and other institutions pave the way for further loss of rights, with high rates for poverty, unemployment, forced migration, exclusion and shamefully high femicide rates. For these reasons, we demand that human rights be guaranteed for all. Ensuring the right to food must be the goal that guides urgent actions and decision-making processes, and public policies to achieve Food Sovereignty. Agrarian Reform and Peasant Agroecology are necessary conditions to achieve food sovereignty. Our collective struggles are to ensure access to health services and education in rural areas, fair prices and markets based on solidarity, healthy food for rural and urban areas, taking care of water and forests. Our primary task is to ensure no one dies of starvation! HUNGER AND POVERTY, THE CONSEQUENCE OF A GLOBAL CRISIS Oxfam had estimated that 11 people die every minute [1] due to hunger, higher even than the mortality rate for COVID-19! Hunger and inequality are born of a failed but dominant economic, social and political system. The crisis of starvation and malnutrition is a sign of this failure. Let us be reminded that hunger is caused not due to insufficient production but because of a free-market logic that treats food as a commodity that only those who can afford it can buy. We are witnessing a real-life version of "the hunger games", disregarding the fundamental right to lead a dignified life. Just as the ECLAC (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) announced in 2020, extreme poverty in rural areas could reach 42%, a completely unprecedented figure. According to these estimates, 10 million rural inhabitants - almost 6 million of them women- could face the situation of not having an income enough to cover even the most basic of nutritional needs. Despite this gloom, during the pandemic, peasant families, fisherfolk, indigenous people, rural workers, seasonal workers and farmworkers working in the fields carried on with their historic task of feeding the people. They continued doing their productive labour, promoting agroecology, solidarity and denouncing the systemic failures that impeded their efforts. They rose to the challenge of meeting the demand for food from the cities, rural communities, and their own families. AN URGENT CALL FOR THE RESPECT OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND DIVERSITIES La Via Campesina demands to ensure all rights of women and peasant communities urgently. It is impossible to keep producing food while amid gross inequalities and terrible working conditions, informal labour, instability, migration, the burden of unpaid housework and care-giving tasks, aside from the difficulty of having fundamental access to land, water, management of natural resources, financing, insurance and training. Peasant women must exercise their fundamental rights and freedom as established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. In this sense, we call on everyone to remain on high alert against the serious setbacks experienced by both women and gender non-conforming communities in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Palestine, the Philippines, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kurdistan and Mexico. We also salute and celebrate the struggle and organization of women fighting for their rights worldwide. It is estimated that 87,000 women were victims of femicides committed by partners or family members - 137 women every day. In Latin America, a woman is murdered every two hours simply for being a woman. "Today more than ever, Food Sovereignty with Peasant Agroecology is our most urgent task. Women and members of the LGBTQIA* community are active on all organizational fronts, but we need our rights ensured to fight against hunger. In Europe, the price of electricity is surpassing that of gold while multinationals selling 'green energy' as a solution engage in extensive land grabbing. They do this to install large industrial parks with solar panels and huge windmills that produce energy to be sold at unaffordable prices," states Sonia Vidal from the Galician Peasant Union, ECVC and the International Women Articulation of La Via Campesina. "These companies prevent peasants from having access to lands that small-scale food producers would use to produce healthy food to fight against hunger, a need more urgent than ever. Those of us who are producers see our costs skyrocket. And the healthier the food (produced using agroecological methods), the more expensive it is to produce and sell. Food Sovereignty, based on peasant agroecology, is vital to fight hunger," adds Vidal. La Via Campesina reaffirms the urgency to protect those who produce food, women, children, and members of the LGBTQIA* community; to preserve our ways of life, customs, traditions, and ancestral knowledge; our territories, food, and food the access to common goods. Societies should demand from the states to stop corporate capture, criminalization, plundering and violence; to stop all processes that make it possible that companies and powerful agents be the ones making decisions when it comes to food. To stop all violence and inequality, we need to change the capitalist system and work towards diverse food systems with Food Sovereignty, social and environmental justice. We call on everyone from each territory to continue steadfast in the struggle to STOP all violence against women, against gender non-conforming people and the working class. Join the hundreds of decentralized actions worldwide, watch our Virtual Festival: "Peasant women fighting for rights, against hunger and violence!" on November 23 on our social networks. DOWNLOAD THE COMMUNICATION KIT [2] ------------------------- PEASANT WOMEN ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND AGAINST HUNGER AND VIOLENCE! #StopViolenceAgainstWomen #FOODSOVEREIGNTYNOW GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE! Links: ------ [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/9/every-minute-11-people-die-of-hunge… [2] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/F96MY7Zt8keqwKs

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[Info EN] Land Workers of the World Unite! Food Sovereignty for Climate Justice Now! -La Via Campesina Declaration Towards UN Climate COP 26
by La Via Campesina 26 Oct '21

26 Oct '21

LAND WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW! LA VIA CAMPESINA DECLARATION TOWARDS UN CLIMATE COP 26 (GLASGOW) (Harare: 25 October 2021) It's the most chaotic climate year on record, since last year, and corporate-controlled governments, transnationals, philanthropists, mainstream media and most non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are offering MORE OF THE SAME: MARKET-BASED SOLUTIONS AND RISKY TECHNO-FIXES. Two years into a global pandemic that has taken the lives of untold millions, humanity wakes daily to historic floods, fires and drought-caused famines along with extremely erratic weather that makes life increasingly difficult to bear. Those in power blame 'general human activity' for climate chaos, overlooking the intimate links between fossil fuel extraction, corporate agribusiness and the military industrial complex, not to mention global power imbalances and historic responsibilities of countries that have enriched themselves through colonial plunder. Instead of a truthful and transformative way forward, we are sold false solutions that never fail to prioritize corporate elites - "net zero", "nature-based solutions", "geo-engineering", and the "digitalization of agricuture", just to name a few. THIS HAS TO STOP, NOW! HALTING THE CLIMATE CRISIS REQUIRES SYSTEM CHANGE ROOTED IN THE RIGHTS OF HUMANITY AND MOTHER EARTH. For over 500 years, the colonial turned corporate patriarchal food system has attempted to dominate all forms of life for the enrichment of a few. Those who control the accumulated wealth - produced by people and the planet over centuries - have so far escaped the wrath of floods, droughts, degraded soils, war and hunger. They ignore the ample signals of the breakdown of the natural systems that sustain life and instead propose that we, the most vulnerable of victims, bear the greatest burden. FOR LA VIA CAMPESINA (LVC) AND OUR ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF PEASANTS, MIGRANTS, LAND WORKERS, FISHERFOLK, FOREST DWELLERS, RURAL WOMEN, YOUTH AND OTHERS, OUR SOLUTION TO THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS A JUST TRANSITION ROOTED IN STRUGGLE AND SOLIDARITY – INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY WITH ALL WHO STRUGGLE FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, CLIMATE JUSTICE, AND THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH! It's a struggle for the full realization of all the rights and responsibilities detailed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) [1], especially the Right to a Clean, Safe and Healthy Environment (Article 18) recently ratified by the UN Human Rights Council for all of humanity [2]. It's also a struggle against the corporate capture of UN spaces through the "multi-stakeholderism' better known as 'stakeholder capitalism', witnessed by all at the so-called UN Food System Summit of 2021 and ever increasingly at the UN Climate COPs. As we brace for another painful UN Climate Conference - Glasgow's COP26 - the 200 million land, water and territory defenders of LVC rise again to DEMAND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE. WE JOIN A LARGE CONVERGENCE of struggles against fossil fuel capitalism, racism, colonialism, and the patriarchy that binds them. As we struggle to hold the corporates responsible for this needless destruction, WE STAND PROUD WITH THE LANDWORKERS' ALLIANCE (LWA) - our LVC member organization based in Scotland, England and Wales. LWA is working tirelessly to bring the voices of agroecological land workers to COP26 by calling for "recognition of the contribution that agroecological farming, sustainable forestry and better land use can make towards our commitments to reduce emissions, sequester carbon and build resilience." Corporations beware, the land workers of the world have real solutions: FOOD, [3]FARMING AND FORESTRY SYSTEMS THAT SERVE THE PEOPLE, CLIMATE AND NATURE [3]! Alongside our LWA and all who struggle for a just transition, we will again stand united in opposition to any attempts made to turn the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into one giant "market mechanism." CLIMATE CAPITALISM IS A CRIME, NOT THE SOLUTION! COP26: MORE MARKET MECHANISMS WON'T SOLVE PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS An outgrowth of the fossil fuel industry, the transnational food system is one of the primary culprits of the climate crisis, contributing some 44 - 57 percent of global GHG emissions. This system alienates people from the land, degrades communities and drives violence and inequality across territories worldwide. It is especially harmful for women and youth whose lives and work are undermined by a system that does not value life. Long before COP21 in Paris, multinational agribusiness and fossil fuel corporations were already using their power and influence to promote policies at national, subnational and global levels. The 2015 Paris Agreement created a "consensus" of sorts around several very problematic false solutions. CARBON TRADING AND OFFSETS MECHANISMS CONTAINED IN ARTICLE 6, FOR EXAMPLE, will put significant power in the hands of wealthy governments, corporations, bankers and traders whose primary objective is to maximize profits not to take care of Mother Earth. Instead of taking decisive actions to adapt to climate change and commit to an honest transition towards democratic and human rights-based food systems, POWERFUL ACTORS ARE USING "NET ZERO" PLEDGES TO HIDE THEIR CLIMATE INACTION. Net zero allows companies to buy their way out of responsibility for historic and on-going emissions, prioritizing initiatives that favour the corporate bottom line. Wherever the corporates promote 'Nature Based Solutions' (NBS), we caution of nature-based dispossession through forest and soil carbon offsets schemes premised on the false claim that paying someone else to deal with carbon emissions instead of taking direct action to reduce pollution will somehow slow-down the crisis. Combating the climate crisis requires a just transition away from fossil fuels, an end to destructive mining and extractive agriculture, and a focus on recovering damaged territories and ecosystems. Our solutions - which are truly nature-based, agroecological, and peasant-controlled - are just solutions. NO 'CARBON UNICORNS' AND MAGICAL THINKING WILL SOLVE THIS PROBLEM, JUST IMMEDIATE ACTION TOWARD SYSTEM CHANGE. Also, what they call 'climate smart agriculture' we call 'Corporate Smart Agriculture' because it provides a framework for integrating GMOs and agrochemicals into small-scale agriculture relying on the same racist and sexist paradigm of the Green Revolution. It positions capitalist science and technology as solutions to the problems faced by "underdevelopment" and the world's supposedly "uneducated" peasants. These original problems were created by global capitalism, theft, colonial pillage, wars and generalized violence. While many corporate false solutions co-opt the language of Peasant Agroecology, nowhere are fundamental rights to local and nutritious food, dignified livelihoods, land and self-determination affirmed or guaranteed. What is guaranteed are endless cycles of accumulation benefiting those driving the climate crisis, including major food and agribusiness corporations like John Deere, Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Nestlé, Wal-Mart and others. THE TRANSITION IS NOW! FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FEEDS CLIMATE JUSTICE! LAND WORKERS AND OTHER FOOD PRODUCERS OF THE WORLD DEMAND – AND STAND READY TO CARRY OUT – A CLIMATE JUST TRANSITION IN AGRICULTURE! For decades, local food producers have been pushed down the path of intensification and monocropping by corporate agribusiness and their allies. The co-opted UN Food System Summit of 2021 was just one more example. What people and the planet need urgently are governments and institutions providing publically-funded opportunities to transition towards more ecologically and socially sound farming systems. FOR FAR TOO LONG HAVE FARMERS FACED THE BLAME FOR A MODEL FORCED UPON US BY CAPITAL. THIS ENDS NOW! Society must recognize that our agricultural, water and land use systems are what they are today because of systemic pressures. As we transition away from fossil fuel capitalism, we must not lose farmers, destroy livelihoods, or healthy food production capacity. Government support for grants and training programmes to support transition are essential, and this JUST TRANSITION IN AGRICULTURE MUST BE CENTRED ON PRINCIPLES OF CLIMATE JUSTICE. This means that all those involved in the food chain - including peasants, pastoralists, migrant workers, contract workers, landless people, and indigenous people - must be front and center defining and implementing the public policies required for this transition. AS LA VIA CAMPESINA WE CALL FOR AN END TO ALL FALSE SOLUTIONS AND MARKET MECHANISMS IN ARTICLE 6. We demand a just transition to Real Zero, not the corporate marketing schemes hidden behind 'net zero'. At the same time, and of the utmost importance, we call on all former colonial powers to take on their historic responsibilities and drastically cut emissions at the source, now, including through an immediate drawdown of their military presence around the world! LA VIA CAMPESINA STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE VICTIMS OF ALL WARS, SANCTIONS AND OCCUPATIONS – be they the maimed and murdered of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan or the poor, working and indigenous people of the United States lacking hospitals, schools and daily bread. FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND MOTHER EARTH – DEFUND THE WAR MACHINE! The pathways to achieving climate justice must be radically different from the ones which produced the crisis. PEASANT AGROECOLOGY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY can 'feed the world and cool the planet'! They offer the very real possibility of reducing emissions and realizing social justice, the rights of people and the planet. A food system based on Food Sovereignty and localized food systems, one fed by family farmers using peasant agroecology, can truly transform society while reducing carbon emissions dramatically and much sooner than any false solutions sold by the corporates. All of this can be done without commodifying carbon, and, at the same time, contribute to strengthening grassroots democratic solutions to poverty, hunger and violence. AGROECOLOGICAL LAND, WATER AND TERRITORY DEFENDERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! With food producers at the forefront of our global convergence for a Food Sovereignty that feeds Climate Justice, life will prevail over death! THE TRANSITION IS NOW! FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FEEDS CLIMATE JUSTICE! GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE! GLOBALIZE HOPE! ------------------------- For press enquiries contact lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org [4] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/UNDROP-Book-of-Illustra… [2] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1103082 [3] https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/COP-climate-j… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/land-workers-of-the-world-unite-food-sovereignt…

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[Info EN] #16Oct: “Our historic task is to ensure that no human being goes hungry”
by La Via Campesina 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

#16OCT: "OUR HISTORIC TASK IS TO ENSURE THAT NO HUMAN BEING GOES HUNGRY" PRESS RELEASE | HARARE, OCTOBER 15, 2021 In the context of October 16 - Global Day of Action for Peoples' Food Sovereignty and Against Multinational Corporations, and in the context of the commemoration of 25 years for food sovereignty [1] - we continue to claim food sovereignty as a philosophy of life, and a concrete and legitimate political proposal in the face of the food, social and environmental crisis that the world is going through. Our historic task is to guarantee that no human being suffers from hunger: as we affirmed as a movement in our recent official declaration [2] of La Via Campesina "Food Sovereignty, a manifesto for the future of our planet". The recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) titled "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World in 2021 [3]" states that by 2020, 30% of the world's population, or about 2.3 billion people, will not have access to adequate food. The report also mentions that 12% of the world's population, or 928 million people, were severely food insecure in the year of the pandemic, 148 million more than in 2019. The fight against hunger in the world is a task that falls as much on the shoulders of peasants, as it does on the shoulders of States and Civil Society. Hunger is not only related to the lack of food, but also to the concentration and unequal distribution of wealth. It is linked to supply problems and to a system of subsidized prices for industrial food that has serious social and environmental repercussions. The industrial food model, agribusiness and neo-liberal policies, which are based on the exploitation of workers and natural resources, generate severe social problems such as poverty, hunger, unemployment, criminalization, migration and violence in many countries. The industrial food model is clearly inefficient and unsustainable, dominated by a handful of transnational corporations that see food as a commodity to be speculated on and as an endless source of profit. As a peasant movement, we have the responsibility to produce food, but we know that it is not enough just to have food; we must also guarantee healthy and poison-free food that guarantees the health and life of humanity and nature. To generate equitable relations between producers, consumers and the environment. We need clear public policies and the enforcement of the rights of those who cultivate and feed the population, rights that are now recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants [4]. Indeed, it is only possible to achieve food sovereignty through agrarian reform, without criminalizing struggles and with land distributed to people living off the waters, fields and forests. As we denounced [5] at the United Nations summit on food systems, food is not a playground, but a stake in many power relationships. Food is about the possible and sustainable future of humanity. This is why we must be attentive and ready to mobilize. More than ever, States must invest so that the rural world is ever more alive, with peasant men and women who can feed the populations and that they are not at the service of food globalization, multinationals and the world market. Food sovereignty fights for life, for the protection of territories and the people who live in them, through solidarity, social and environmental justice. As we have already pointed out, food is a fundamental human right that, in addition to guaranteeing health, demands adequate nutrition and a dignified life for people. Building diversified, just and sustainable food systems based on food sovereignty and agroecological production is essential for the present and future of humanity. It is impossible to turn back the clock on such fundamental rights as food, in the midst of the crises we are currently experiencing. This October 16, we denounce the networks of private interests that endanger the sovereignty and food security of people around the world. Food is not a game and covid-19 has forced more than 120 million people to be on the chronic hunger lists. Peasantry, in alliance with rural, forest, water and urban organizations, has real solutions based on food sovereignty as a fertile ground for social, environmental and political transformations. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY MEANS LAND, WATER, SEEDS, BREAD AND SOLIDARITY! Tomorrow, Saturday 16th of October, join hundreds of decentralized actions around the world, participate in our Food Sovereignty Festival - 25 years building the future organized by La Via Campesina and allies. For media queries write to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org Facebook [6]Twitter [7]WhatsApp [8]Telegram [9]Email [10] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/twenty-five-years-of-envisioning-food-sovereign… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [3] https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/2021/en/ [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/undrop-illustrations/ [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/the-un-food-systems-summit-is-hogwash-it-is-a-t… [6] https://viacampesina.org/#facebook [7] https://viacampesina.org/#twitter [8] https://viacampesina.org/#whatsapp [9] https://viacampesina.org/#telegram [10] https://viacampesina.org/#email

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[Info EN] Food Sovereignty, a Manifesto for the Future of Our Planet | La Via Campesina
by La Via Campesina 13 Oct '21

13 Oct '21

_OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM LA VIA CAMPESINA [1], AS WE MARK 25 YEARS OF OUR COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY_ ------------------------- Food Sovereignty is a philosophy of life. It offers a vision for our collective future, and defines the principles around which we organize our daily living and co-exist with Mother Earth. It is a celebration of life and all the diversity around us. It embraces every element of our cosmos; the sky above our heads, the land beneath our feet, the air we breathe, the forests, the mountains, valleys, farms, oceans, rivers and ponds. It recognizes and protects the inter-dependency between eight million species that share this home with us. We inherited this collective wisdom from our ancestors, who ploughed the land and waded the waters for 10,000 years, a period in which we evolved into an agrarian society. Food Sovereignty promotes justice, equality, dignity, fraternity and solidarity. Food Sovereignty is also the science of life - built through lived realities spread across countless generations, each teaching their progeny something new, inventing new methods and techniques which sat harmoniously with nature. As holders of this rich heritage, it is our collective responsibility to defend it and preserve it. Recognizing this as our duty - especially in the late '90s when conflicts, acute hunger, global warming and extreme poverty were too visible to ignore - La Via Campesina(LVC) brought the paradigm of Food Sovereignty into international policy-making spaces. LVC reminded the world that this philosophy of life must guide the principles of our shared living. The '80s and the '90s were an era of unbridled capitalist expansion - at a pace never seen before in human history. Cities were expanding, growing on the backs of cheap, unpaid and underpaid labour. The countryside was being pushed into oblivion. Rural communities and rural ways of living were swept under the carpet by a new ideology that wanted to turn everybody into a mere consumer of things and an object of exploitation for profit. Popular culture and consciousness were under the spell of glittery advertisements goading people to "buy more". In all this, though, the ones who produced - the working class in the rural areas, coasts and cities, which included the peasants and other small-scale food producers - remained invisible, while the ones who could afford to consume with wander took centre stage. Pushed to the edges, peasant1 [2] workers and indigenous communities worldwide recognized the urgent necessity for an organized and internationalist response to this globalizing, free-market ideology propagated by the defenders of the capitalist world order. Food Sovereignty became one of the expressions of this collective response. At the 1996 World Food Summit, in a debate about how we organize our global food systems, La Via Campesina coined the term food sovereignty; to insist upon the centrality of the small-scale food producers, the accumulated wisdom of generations, the autonomy and diversity of rural and urban communities and solidarity between peoples, as essential components for crafting policies around food and agriculture. In the ensuing decade, social movements and civil society actors worked together to define it further "_as the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations."_ THE INTRODUCTION OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AS A COLLECTIVE RIGHT CHANGED HOW THE WORLD UNDERSTOOD POVERTY AND HUNGER. Until then, especially in the early years of the 21st century, a narrow idea of "Food Security" dominated governance and policy-making circles. Noble in its intent, food security treated those affected by hunger as objects of compassion, risked reducing them to passive consumers of food produced elsewhere. While it recognized food as a fundamental human right, it did not defend the objective conditions for producing food. Who produces? For Whom? How? Where? And Why? All these questions were absent, and the focus was decidedly on merely "feeding the people". An overt emphasis on people's food security ignored the hazardous consequences of industrial food production and factory farming, built on the sweat and labour of migrant workers. Food Sovereignty, on the other hand, presents a radical overhaul. It recognizes people and local communities as the principal actors in the fight against poverty and hunger. It calls for strong local communities and defends their right to produce and consume before trading the surplus. It demands autonomy and objective conditions to use local resources, calls for agrarian reform and collective ownership of territories. It defends the rights of peasant communities to use, save, exchange seeds. It stands for the rights of people to eat healthy, nutritious food. It encourages agroecological production cycles, respecting climatic and cultural diversities in every community. Social peace, social justice, gender justice and solidarity economies are essential pre-conditions for realizing food sovereignty. It calls for an international trade order based on cooperation and compassion as against competition and coercion. It calls for a society that rejects discrimination in all forms - caste, class, racial and gender - and urges people to fight patriarchy and parochialism. A tree is only strong as its roots. Food Sovereignty, defined by social movements in the '90s and subsequently at the Nyeleni Forum in Mali in 2007, intends to do precisely that. THIS YEAR WE CELEBRATE 25 YEARS OF THIS COLLECTIVE CONSTRUCTION. The world is nowhere near perfect. Capitalism and free-market ideology continue to dominate policy circles even in the face of unprecedented inequality, rising hunger and extreme poverty. Worse, new attempts are also being made to envision a digital future - of farming without farmers, fishing without fishers- all under the garb of digitalisation of agriculture and to create new markets for synthetic food. All these challenges notwithstanding, the Food Sovereignty Movement, which is now much more extensive than La Via Campesina and comprises several actors, has made significant advances. Thanks to our joint struggles, global governance institutions such as the FAO 2 [3] have come to recognize the centrality of peoples' food sovereignty in international policy-making. The UN Declaration on Rights Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas further re-emphasizes this in Article 15.4, when it states, _" Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to determine their own food and agriculture systems, recognized by many States and regions as the right to food sovereignty. This includes the right to participate in decision-making processes on food and agriculture policy and the right to healthy and adequate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods that respect their cultures."_ Some nations have also given constitutional recognition to Food Sovereignty. The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the industrial food chains have further reminded national governments of the importance of creating robust local economies. Peasant Agroecology, which is fundamental to ensuring food sovereignty in our territories, is now recognized at the FAO as central to our fight against global warming. Current and previous Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations have endorsed food sovereignty as a simple but powerful idea that can transform the global food system favouring small-scale food producers. Sustained campaign by social movements have also resulted in several legal victories against corporations producing agro-toxins, other chemical inputs and transgenic seeds. Yet, what lies ahead of us is a road ridden with many barriers. The promoters of the capitalist world order realize that food sovereignty is an idea that impinges on their financial interests. They prefer a world of monoculture and homogenous tastes, where food can be mass-produced using cheap labour in faraway factories, disregarding its ecological, human and social impacts. They prefer economies of scale to robust local economies. They choose a global-free market (based on speculation and cut-throat competition) over solidarity economies that require more robust territorial markets (local peasant markets) and active participation of local food producers. They prefer to have land banks where industrial-scale contract farming would replace small-holder producers. They inject our soil with agro-toxics for better short-term yields, ignoring the irreversible damage to soil health. Their trawlers will again crawl the oceans and rivers, netting fishes for a global market while the coastal communities starve. They will continue to try to hijack indigenous peasant seeds through patents and seed treaties. The trade agreements they craft will again aim to bring down tariffs that protect our local economies. An exodus of unemployed youth, deserting village farms and choosing wage work in cities, sits perfectly with their urge to find a regular supply of cheap labour. Their unrelenting focus on "margins" would mean that they will find all means to depress farm-gate prices while trading it at higher prices at retail supermarkets. In the end, the ones who lose are the people - both the producers and consumers. Those who resist will be criminalized. A happy co-existence of the global financial elite with authoritarian governments would mean that even the highest institutions - nationally and globally - meant to oversee and arrest human rights violations will look away. Billionaires would use their philanthropic foundations to fund agencies that churn out "research reports" and "scientific journals" to justify this corporate vision of our food systems. Every global governance space, where the social movements and civil society members campaigned hard to gain a seat at the table, will make way for Corporate Conglomerates who will enter the scene as "stakeholders". Every attempt will be made to deride those of us who defend Food Sovereignty as unscientific, primitive, impractical and idealistic. All this will happen, as it did over the last two decades. None of this is new to us. Those condemned to the peripheries of our societies by a cruel and all-devouring capitalist system have no choice but to fight back. We must resist and show that we exist. It is not just about our survival, but also about future generations and a way of life handed down through generations. It is for the future of humanity that we defend our food sovereignty. This is only possible if we insist that any local, national or global policy proposal on food and agriculture must build from the principles of food sovereignty. The young peasants and workers of our worldwide movement must lead this fight. We must remind ourselves that the only way to make our voice heard is by uniting and building new alliances within and across every border. Rural and Urban Social Movements, Trade Unions and civil society actors, progressive governments, academics, scientists and technology enthusiasts must come together to defend this vision for our future. Peasant women and other oppressed gender minorities must find equal space in the leadership of our movement at all levels. We must sow the seeds of solidarity in our communities and address all forms of discrimination that keep rural societies divided. Food Sovereignty offers a manifesto for the future, a feminist vision that embraces diversity. It is an idea that unites humanity and puts us at the service of Mother Earth that feeds and nourishes us. In its defence, we stand united. GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE HOPE! #NOFUTUREWITHOUTFOODSOVEREIGNTY LA VIA CAMPESINA 13 OCTOBER 2021 ------------------------------------------------ _LA VIA CAMPESINA AND ALLIES ARE ORGANIZING A SERIES OF EVENTS AND VIRTUAL ACTIONS IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER, 2021. SIGN UP FOR THESE EVENTS HERE [4]. All members and allies are also encouraged to hold local actions in your territories to celebrate this common vision we have. Email the details of your events to LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG or share them on social media with the hashtag #NoFutureWithoutFoodSovereignty. Remember to tag us on Facebook (@ViaCampesinaOfficial), Twitter (@via_campesina) and Instagram (@la_via_campesina_official). La Via Campesina will also be releasing a series of communication materials that are free to use and adapt. DOWNLOAD THE COMMUNICATION KIT HERE. [5] _ Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-a-manifesto-for-the-future-of-… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/events-in-october-celebrating-25-years-of-our-s… [5] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/E9y4r2Sy5pS88Y6

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[Info EN] Call to Action: There is no Future without Food Sovereignty, Now is the Time to Transform!
by La Via Campesina 24 Sep '21

24 Sep '21

CALL TO ACTION: THERE IS NO FUTURE WITHOUT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, NOW IS THE TIME TO TRANSFORM! Food Sovereignty is Land, Water, Seeds, Bread and Solidarity! _CALL TO HUMANITY TO TAKE ACTION FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY_ (Harare, September 23, 2021) On October the 16th, we celebrate 25 years of envisioning food sovereignty. This 25-year celebration and reflections are happening at a time when the planet and humanity is facing unprecedented crisis upon crisis. Climate change (heat waves, droughts, floods etc.) ravages the planet and biodiversity loss at catastrophic levels. Pollution is pervasive and chokes both terrestrial and marine life. Hunger, poverty and inequality are on the rise. COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the already dire situation. We urgently need to transform our way of life to adapt and survive. Now is the moment to globally coordinate people's actions in rural and urban to build equitable and healthy food systems. Food sovereignty is the solution to transform food systems, end hunger and malnutrition and to cool the earth, to preserve biodiversity, and respect the rights of peasants and workers! There is no future without food sovereignty. The global food systems dominated by big businesses have not only failed but cause most of the problems and crisis we face today. The recent big business initiative at the UN Food Systems Summit to entrench their interests in and capture global food governance spaces and shape policy must be resisted. This coming October we call on our members, allies, friends, activists and other likeminded civil society organisations to mobilise for food sovereignty and against corporate capture of food governance systems. The people, the planet and not profits should come first in all our relations. We, the peasants, men and women, indigenous peoples, rural populations, agricultural workers, the youth in urban and rural areas, have the solution -FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND PEASANT AGROECOLOGY. LET'S UNITE TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE! We can only build and guarantee a future with food sovereignty if we unite to transform our society by doing the following: * Take action in your farm to make food sovereignty practices visible to the world (exchange seeds, organize farmers' fair for local food producers and consumers etc.). * Adopt a seed(s) and start growing own food to strengthen local production. Share a photo(s) of this action with the _#NOFUTUREWITHOUTFOODSOVEREIGNTY_ * Put pressure on governments and local authorities to prioritize food sovereignty in public policies and implement the UN Declaration of Rights of Peasants and other people working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). * Engage in direct action, starting October 1st, to expose the agribusinesses and transnational corporations that affect our way of life and violate our rights and call them out in our communities. Resist corporate capture of our food system! Share a photo(s) of your action. * In light of the worsening climate crisis, let's engage in more awareness activities on social media to give visibility our solution "_#AGROECOLOGYCOOLSTHEEARTH"_ * Solidarity through food donations: Let´s share the food we produce with those in need in our communities. * Write and draw for food Sovereignty (see Call for Artists [1] and for Writers [2]) ------------------------- Send us your actions, images, posters and articles to our email: lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org, tag us on social media twitter (@via_campesina [3]), Instagram (@la_via_campesina_oficial [4]) and Facebook (@viacampesinaOFFICIAL [5]), and make visible globally our collective mobilization for a better society based on food sovereignty. ------------------------- FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IS LAND, WATER, SEEDS, BREAD AND SOLIDARITY! _#NOFUTUREWITHOUTFOODSOVEREIGNTY_ _#FOODSOVEREIGNTYNOW_ Facebook [6]Twitter [7]WhatsApp [8]Telegram [9]Email [10] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/artists-for-food-sovereignty-call-for-solidarit… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/call-for-articles-twenty-five-years-of-envision… [3] https://twitter.com/via_campesina [4] https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/ [5] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL [6] https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina… [7] https://viacampesina.org/#twitter [8] https://viacampesina.org/#whatsapp [9] https://viacampesina.org/#telegram [10] https://viacampesina.org/#email

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[Info EN] The UN Food Systems Summit is hogwash. It is a threat to peoples’ food sovereignty.
by La Via Campesina 22 Sep '21

22 Sep '21

THE UN FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT IS HOGWASH. IT IS A THREAT TO PEOPLES' FOOD SOVEREIGNTY La Via Campesina's Press Statement | September 22nd 2021, Harare: La Via Campesina is among scores of other social movements of organized small-scale food producers, workers and indigenous people boycotting the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), slated to take place in New York - September 23rd, 2021. Peoples' movements are united in condemning the illegitimacy of this 'summit' and in denouncing the attempt by transnational corporations to usurp the institutional spaces within the United Nations. Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples' Mechanism (CSM) that comprise social movements including La Via Campesina has pointed out that the pre-summit events held in July are now erecting parallel governance structures. UNFSS is undermining the existing institutions and multilateral bodies responsible for developing global policy frameworks for food and agriculture. Several member states are left wondering what this Summit intends to achieve and whether its outcomes would be binding upon developing national policy frameworks. It will override the existing institutions such as the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and forebodes a corporate takeover of the global food governance. For sure, the global food systems must undergo a radical overhaul. Rising hunger, ecological harm from food production, including deforestation, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, decimated fisheries, polluted waters, growing rural poverty, the continued repression of peasant and indigenous movements worldwide, displacement and climate crises - all point to the need for urgent transformation. The demand to transform the global food system and skew it in favour of small-scale food producers has been a long-standing one, stated first during the Civil Society Forum in Rome in 1996. Yet when the Secretary-General of the United Nations announced two years ago that a Food Systems Summit (FSS) would be held in late 2021, the news was puzzling. Why did the Secretary-General initiate this food summit in partnership with the World Economic Forum - a private sector body - when the FAO hosted all the previous editions after specific mandates from the Members States? To leave no further doubt about the corporate interests driving the Food System Summit, the Special Envoy appointed for the Summit, Agnes Kalibata, is the president of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). This Gates/Rockefeller funded agency is pushing high input, high tech agriculture and GMO seeds. Founded in 2006, this Alliance has worked in 13 African countries to increase productivity for 30 million smallholder farming households by encouraging industrial farming adoption. Despite AGRA's promises of doubling crop productivity and incomes while halving food insecurity by 2020, backed by billions of donor dollars, it has been unable to provide documentation of delivering on these goals [1]. AGRA's failures on the continent and Ms Kalibata's apparent conflicts of interest in her role as UNFSS Special Envoy resulted in broad resistance from social movements and civil society. THE FARCE OF 'INCLUSIVENESS.' The Summit organizers follow a multi-stakeholder approach as against a multilateral arrangement. Multilateral Summits, based on human rights, with transparent decision-making processes and accountability mechanisms, are meant to prioritize the voices of rights-holders and hold governments responsible for upholding those rights. But this "UN Food Systems Summit" is based on the idea of "multi-stakeholder" - treating all stakeholders as equal, without considering power imbalances or their position in the system. This fiction of equality leaves the powerful both unchallenged and unaccountable, hiding or ignoring any conflicts of interest. By conflating private corporate interests with the public interest, it overrides and erases the latter. To advertise "inclusiveness", it has proliferated a dizzying array of platforms, dialogues, consultations, committees, documents and forums for participation. Private citizens and governments are being drawn into these processes. Some of these are open, but many are for invited participants, bypassing and undermining autonomous, democratic organizations while favouring hand-picked individuals. The entire process lacks transparency and legitimacy. Who is making decisions? On what grounds? Who is accountable? To whom? THE GUISE OF PROGRESSIVE LANGUAGE In July this year, La Via Campesina was among the members of the CSM that co-organized counter mobilizations - to call out the unacceptability that has come to define this year's food systems summit. A wide variety of attendees came together and catalyzed and amplified a counter-narrative to the official proceedings. With critical articles and pieces published in major media outlets, and several thousands of #FoodSystems4People posts on social media seen by potentially 10 million users, the counter-mobilization succeeded in reaching a broad public with its vision for genuine transformation of unsustainable food systems. This organized resistance rattled the organizers of the official Summit. In response, they have now ramped up the use of progressive language ("sustainability", "nature-positive-solutions", "planetary boundaries", "women's empowerment", etc.) and references to human rights in their documents. But the primary orientation of the FSS remains firmly rooted in the corporate interests that initiated it rather than the demands and rights of people producing food and those most impacted by current food systems. It continues to confirm a narrow range of scientific partisans data while ignoring the traditional and experiential knowledge of small-scale farmers, indigenous, peasant, and rural peoples. Digitalization, genetic modification, precision agriculture, and other chemical-, capital-, and fossil fuel-heavy approaches are taking centre stage because these so-called solutions are the most profitable to corporations (at the expense of the environment and farmers' livelihoods). As the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food notes [2], "Intensive industrial agriculture relies on high-input, high-output agricultural systems, dominated by large-scale specialized farms. Ever since Governments started adopting the Green Revolution in the 1950s, the world's food systems have been increasingly designed along industrial models, the idea being that if people can purchase industrial inputs - synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and carbon-reliant machines - then they can produce a large amount of food. Productivity was not measured in terms of human and environmental health, but exclusively in terms of commodity output and economic growth." Unfortunately, the UN Food Systems Summit ignores all these warnings and continues to bat for an intensive corporate-led agricultural model that masquerades as "solutions". FOREBODINGS OF A NEW GLOBAL GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE? This Summit attacks from the front and will undermine existing global policymaking spaces and institutions like FAO and the CFS. Instead, it erects a parallel architecture to suit agribusiness interests. The Summit organizers are now encouraging stakeholders to form "coalitions of action" to implement "solutions". Governments are encouraged to develop "national pathways" with stakeholder coalitions, many of which will inevitably be dominated by those who can afford to fund them. Middle and Low-income countries are vulnerable to entering "coalitions" with investors and philanthrocapitalists, such as the Gates Foundation, to carve out "national pathways" profitable for their coalition partners. The resistance to this parallel structure is coming from within the official Summit too. In her resignation letter (dated August 25/21), Dr Kristy Buckley, Chair of the UNFSS Governance Action Area, derided the attempts to view the global food governance "through the lens of innovation, finance, technology and data, with no regard to human rights, gender, and Indigenous Peoples". Her statement is a vindication of what social movements have been warning for a long time. The real solution to climate crises, hunger, distress migration and extreme poverty lies with the people. It must emerge from the principles of food sovereignty and social justice. It must recognize food as a fundamental human right and not as a commodity for speculative trade. It must respect the diverse agroecological small-scale food systems that exist in our territories. The "UN Food Systems Summit" of 2021 is an anti-thesis to these principles and threatens peoples' food sovereignty. La Via Campesina will not remain silent. THE UNFSS HAS NO MANDATE, LEGITIMACY, OR AUTHORITY TO EXTEND BEYOND SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2021. WE MUST PREVENT THE SUMMIT'S CORPORATE AFFILIATES FROM FURTHER EMBEDDING THE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER STRUCTURE INTO THE UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE AGENCIES. Throughout this week, La Via Campesina's member organization will hold counter mobilizations in Asia, Africa and Europe. Our North American members and allies will be holding a VIRTUAL COUNTER-SUMMIT ON SEPTEMBER 23RD [3] to expose the real agenda behind this Summit while also presenting the elements of the radical transformation we seek in the global food systems. Globalize the Struggle! Globalize Hope! ------------------------- #NOTINOURNAMES | #BOYCOTTUNFOODSUMMIT | #FOODSYSTEMS4PEOPLE ------------------------- For media requests, write to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org. ------------------------- ALSO READ: NO TO CORPORATE FOOD SYSTEMS! YES TO FOOD SOVEREIGNTY! [4] Links: ------ [1] http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/08/fiddling-nairobi-africa-goes-hungry/ [2] https://undocs.org/A/76/237 [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/north-american-coalition-mobilizes-to-counter-u… [4] https://www.csm4cfs.org/no-to-corporate-food-systems-yes-to-food-sovereignt…

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