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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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#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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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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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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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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Press Release: Freedom from Hunger, Poverty, Debt and Death! Freedom from Free Trade Agreements!
by La Via Campesina 09 Sep '21

09 Sep '21

------------------------- _The 10__th__ of September is marked as the International Day of Solidarity Action against WTO and Free Trade Agreements by La Via Campesina, to commemorate the sacrifice of Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae, who stabbed himself to death, outside the venue of the WTO Ministerial at Cancun Mexico, 2003. His act was a desperate and angry reaction to WTO-led free trade deals that led to a total marginalisation of small-scale food producers in his country and the world._ ------------------------- _Press Release: International Day of Solidarity Action against WTO and Free Trade Agreements_ ------------------------- HARARE, THE 09TH OF SEPTEMBER 2021: 'Zero Hunger by 2030' and 'Ending Poverty in all its forms everywhere' lists among the Sustainable Developments Goals that the United Nations aims to achieve by the end of this decade. Yet, as of September 2021, two trends stand in complete contrast to this goal. * Hunger has been rising since 2015, and the latest estimate of hungry people stands at 820 million. The majority of the world's malnourished - 381 million [1] - are still found in Asia. More than 250 million live in Africa, where the number of undernourished is growing faster than anywhere in the world. Despite being the sites of aggressive corporate-led agricultural operations, Latin American and Caribbean nations are also home to nearly 84 million [2] people living in extreme poverty, facing hunger and malnutrition. * In May 2021, global food prices rose at their fastest monthly rate in more than a decade [FAO]. A surge in the international prices of vegetable oils, sugar and cereals has led to this increase. All this is even though each year, an estimated one-third of all food produced - equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes worth around $1 trillion - ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers or spoiling due to poor transportation and harvesting practices. Clearly, the global food system is broken. A host of multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements between countries and continents form the central pillar of this broken system. These instruments have enabled a host of mega-corporations - that are engaged in seeds, farm inputs, meat, dairy, palm oil, cotton and processed food businesses - to gain market entry into economically developing and under-developed nations around the world. It has had devastating consequences for local trade, peasant markets and peoples' food sovereignty. Almost all of these free trade negotiations on agriculture and fisheries are inspired by the WTO's highly problematic Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). This global framework essentially bats for lower import tariffs, withdrawal of domestic subsidies, and abolishing public stock-holding for food security purposes. It is an outdated 20th century model of trade that serves corporate interests at the expense of planetary boundaries and animal welfare and drives us towards untenable social inequalities. The fact that industrial agriculture and its associated practices contribute nearly half of the global greenhouse gas emissions is not deterring its expansion through these trade deals. At this point, at least 350 regional free trade agreements and more than 3000 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are in force worldwide. BITs usually include the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. ISDS enables companies to sue the governments, if they deem that new laws or regulations negatively affect their business. This controversial settlement dispute mechanism relies on arbitration rather than public courts, and nearly 1000 [3] investor-state disputes have been brought against governments by corporations worldwide. Free Trade Agreements and Investment treaties aim to exploit cheap labour and relaxed environmental and labour regulations in economically less-developed nations. Major powers such as the US and the European Union push other countries to adopt their intellectual property standards. Under pressure, and under the guise of ease-of-doing-business, most national governments end up dismantling national regulatory mechanisms that offer protection to local trade, local labour and natural resources. In June 2021, at the 100th session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the WTO, reminded the participants that the objective of the WTO is to raise living standards, create jobs, and promote sustainable development and human well-being across the world. Yet, over the last five decades of its existence, global free trade agreements have only delivered hunger, food riots, farmer suicides, climate crises, extreme poverty and distress migration. These trade agreements, laid the pathway for privatisation, deregulation and withdrawal of the State's obligation in delivering essential public services to its people. It has had a devastating impact on rural areas in particular. Women and children face the extreme brunt of it, as distress migration forces them to flee their villages and work under sub-human conditions in the cities. Across countries, the availability and quality of public healthcare and public education have suffered immensely over the last five decades, especially in rural areas, thereby denying a right to decent life to women, children and youth. South Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae's desperate act of sacrificing his life, right outside the venue of a WTO ministerial in Cancun eighteen years ago, tragically expressed these crises in rural areas worldwide. Tragically, instead of heeding to the voices of the peasants, indigenous people, fishers and migrant farmworkers, the World Trade Organisation and wealthy governments continue with their business as usual and pursue these policies as if none of these crises ever existed. PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE PUSHING BACK MORE THAN EVER. India's protesting farmers, who have been on the streets for the last nine months, have cited how the new farm laws aim to corporatise Indian Agriculture and can jeopardise the country's public procurement system. They also point to further trade negotiations on the horizon (with the US and EU) that threaten their food sovereignty, autonomy and biosafety norms around GM foods. In Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea, peasant farmers resist CP-TPP, RCEP, FTAAP-21 and a host of other regional trade agreements being pushed through by global economic powerhouses like the US and China. In Argentina,Ecuador, Kenya and Zambia, citizens protest against the IMF-induced debt crisis. The EU-Mercosur deal is finding resistance from peasants and civil society organisations on both sides of the spectrum. They point out that in the Mercosur countries, soya, sugar and meat production, for example, is becoming increasingly industrialised, mainly in connection with the aggressive export-orientated model. The Amazonia basin of South America, central to climate and biodiversity worldwide,is forced to give way to this model. Even as the global health pandemic demands worldwide solidarity and empathy, Europe and the United States are at the forefront of blocking the effort spearheaded by South Africa and India within the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property protections COVID-19 vaccines and other tools. Those who resist these unjust trade agreements are oppressed and criminalised. Most of the agrarian conflicts worldwide today arise from the corporate grabbing of natural resources, often in connivance with local governments and authorities. These forced acquisitions of our territories are usually carried out to honour these negotiated trade and investment deals, signed and executed without the approval or participation of peasant and indigenous communities. What use are WTO and a host of these Free Trade Agreements if they are merely extending a colonial habit of subjugating a majority of the people? These free trade agreements, often negotiated behind closed doors through opaque processes, are the enduring symbols of imperialism and neocolonialism of the 21st century. Hunger is real. Rural poverty and starvation are real. Pandemic is real. Vaccine inequity is real. Distress migration is real. Climate crises are real. Do we know what else is real? In a time of a global health and food crisis, Nestlé's shareholders and executives awarded themselves a record dividend payout [4] of US$8 billion, more than the entire annual budget for the UN's World Food Programme! These agribusinesses have been repeatedly exposed and called out by communities around the world. Pushed to the back foot by widespread protests and adverse court judgements, these giant corporations are now entering global governance spaces and co-opting the human rights language with a renewed aggression, all in the hope of green-washing their criminal conduct. The latest example of this image-building effort is the UN Food Systems Summit - a facade behind which agribusinesses can hide their countless human rights violations and unfair trade practices. In the face of extreme human distress, hunger and poverty, we must fight against this vulgarity of capitalism and neoliberalism. Under Article 16, the _UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON RIGHTS OF PEASANTS AND OTHER PEOPLE WORKING IN RURAL AREAS (UNDROP) _affirms that States shall take appropriate measures to strengthen and support local, national and regional markets. They must do it in ways that facilitate and ensure our full and equitable access and participation in these markets, to sell our products at prices that allow them and their families to attain an adequate standard of living. Our struggles in our territories must draw their strength from the Peasants' Rights Declaration and demand public policies that are in line with UNDROP. AS WE MARK THIS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY ACTION AGAINST WTO AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS, LA VIA CAMPESINA ECHOES THE LAST WORDS OF FARMER LEE FROM CANCUN IN 2003. He said, "My warning goes out to all citizens that human beings are in an endangered situation. That uncontrolled multinational corporations and a small number of big WTO Members are leading undesirable globalisation that is inhumane, environmentally degrading, farmer-killing, and undemocratic." As La Via Campesina, we pledge to struggle until victory. We will stay alert to the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO to be held in Geneva from the 30th of November. We will press on with our demands to push WTO and FTAs out of agriculture! We will insist on a global trade system that respects the dignity of the people and bases itself on solidarity and reciprocity beyond borders. RESIST FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS! END THE WTO! SOLIDARITY TRADE, NOW! Links: ------ [1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/ [2] http://www.fao.org/americas/noticias/ver/en/c/1293339/ [3] https://www.bilaterals.org/?what-s-wrong-with-free-trade [4] https://www.cadtm.org/Agro-imperialism-in-the-time-of-Covid-19

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La Via Campesina: June-July | 2021 | e-Newsletter
by La Via Campesina 13 Aug '21

13 Aug '21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* This edition of the newsletter is the result of a collective effort of organisations that are part of_ La Via Campesina's_ global movement. To subscribe to our monthly newsletter click here [1] FOOD SYSTEMS THAT EMPOWER PEOPLE, NOT CORPORATIONS! ------------------------- Between 25-28 July 2021, some 9,000 people gathered for a mostly virtual counter-mobilization to oppose the United Nations Food Systems (UNFSS) Pre-Summit. The alternative forum was hailed a huge success, as it drew together a wide variety of attendees and was able to catalyze and amplify a counter-narrative to the official proceedings. With critical articles and pieces published in major media outlets such as the BBC [2], Al Jazeera [3] and Italian state TV Rai [4], and several thousands of #FoodSystems4People [5] 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. Read More [6] More photos from our online campaign #NotInOurNames #BoycottUNFoodSummit is available on this Twitter Thread [7] and also on our official Facebook [8] Page. Opening Declaration of the Counter-Mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems. Read More [9] Here is why we are boycotting the UN Food Systems Summit. Read More [3] Food Sovereignty: 25 years in the making Read More [10] The UN and Green Capitalism Attack Food Sovereignty. Read More [11] ACT NOW TO SUPPORT GAZA'S FARMERS, FARMWORKERS AND FISHERFOLK! HELP GAZA FEED ITSELF! ------------------------- 15 years into an already-devastating blockade, the recent assault on Gaza left thousands of Palestinian farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolk in urgent need of support and solidarity. Alongside the tragic loss of life, the homes, schools and hospitals destroyed, Gaza's food system is in ruins. Palestians now seek to restore their water wells, greenhouses, animal barns and fishing boats, among other needs, and La Via Campesina wants to help by contributing USD $250,000 to this effort. Join Us! MAKE A CONTRIBUTION HERE. [12] ECVC launches publication on gender diversity in rural areas. Read More [13] "Hands that hold the plough will never plead", Indian farmers' protest completes 200 days. Read More [14] Open letter: Call for the Suspension of the EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Read More [15] Thousands of farmers demonstrate in Lisbon for a fairer CAP. Read More [16] This year 2021, we celebrate 25 years of peasant-led efforts and campaign in our communities to bring food sovereignty to reality - healthy diets, healthy soils, healthy seeds, agroecology etc - and continue to resist the capitalist model. This vision, of relating to nature and with one another harmoniously, practised for thousands of years was put into words by La Via Campesina and allies at the 1996 World Food Summit [17] in Rome. We defined "Food Sovereignty" as the right of people to autonomously produce healthy, nutritious, climatically, and culturally appropriate food, using local resources and through agroecological means, primarily to address the local food needs of their communities. As a mark of celebration, we are releasing our first official poster in a series that will explore the different dimensions of Food Sovereignty, as laid out at the 1996 Summit. Art work by Rosanna Morris NEW PUBLICATION Nyéléni Newsletter: Communicating for Food Sovereignty ------------------------- Edition: June 2021 Download the Newsletter [18] FEATURED VIDEO [19] Several Social Movements are boycotting the UN Food Systems Summit. In this short video, La Via Campesina explains why this Summit is problematic. For more information: https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/unfss2021/ Music by Greg Dombrowski 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 [20]. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [1] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [26] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [27] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [1] Links: ------ [1] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000y5fg [3] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/25/here-is-why-we-are-boycotting-… [4] http://confini.blog.rainews.it/2021/07/22/il-tradimento-del-vertice-onu-sui… [5] https://twitter.com/hashtag/foodsystems4people [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/thousands-mobilize-to-call-for-food-systems-tha… [7] https://twitter.com/via_campesina/status/1419595112179404807 [8] http://facebook.com/ViaCampesinaOfficial [9] https://viacampesina.org/en/opening-declaration-of-the-counter-mobilization… [10] https://viacampesina.org/en/food-sovereignty-25-years-in-the-making/ [11] https://viacampesina.org/en/un-food-system-summit-the-un-and-green-capitali… [12] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/gaza-appeal-farmers-fishers-2021 [13] https://viacampesina.org/en/ecvc-launches-publication-on-gender-diversity-i… [14] https://viacampesina.org/en/hands-that-hold-the-plough-will-never-plead-ind… [15] https://viacampesina.org/en/open-letter-call-for-the-suspension-of-the-eu-c… [16] https://viacampesina.org/en/thousands-of-farmers-demonstrate-in-lisbon-for-… [17] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/1996-Rom-en.… [18] https://nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=165 [19] https://vimeo.com/575872913 [20] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina [21] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/ [22] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL [23] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [24] https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/ [25] https://viacampesina.org/ [26] http://www.viacampesina.org [27] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org

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“Artists for Food Sovereignty”: Inviting Artists around the world!
by La Via Campesina 13 Aug '21

13 Aug '21

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* "ARTISTS FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY" ------------------------- "_Art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it". _Ernst Fischer ------------------------- This year, La Via Campesina is celebrating 25 years of peasant-led efforts and campaign in our communities to bring food sovereignty to reality - healthy diets, healthy soils, healthy seeds, agroecology etc - and continue to resist the capitalist model. This vision, of relating to nature and with one another harmoniously, practiced for thousands of years was put into words by La Via Campesina and allies at the 1996 World Food Summit [1] in Rome. We defined "Food Sovereignty" as the right of people to autonomously produce healthy, nutritious, climatically, and culturally appropriate food, using local resources and through agroecological means, primarily to address the local food needs of their communities. Throughout the past 25 years, the formation of Food Sovereignty has contributed to strengthening a model of society that prioritizes life. Food sovereignty, among the multitude of ideas that it encompasses, is also about defending the billion diversities that exist on this planet, and is a celebration of our many unique practices, tastes, cultures and customs. An important pillar in this struggle for food sovereignty is the role played by popular rural cultures, of peasants, fisher-folk, family farmers and Indigenous Peoples. Art and popular communication [2] are vital tools of expression, exchange and resistance in peasant and indigenous cultures worldwide. It is in this context that La Via Campesina launches its international call to action, "ARTISTS FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY", as we build up our efforts towards _OCTOBER 16, 2021 – THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR PEOPLES' FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS_. "ARTISTS FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY" attempts to gather audio-visual expressions of the historical struggles and resistance led by peasants, food artisans, indigenous peoples, fishers, shepherds, the landless, women, agricultural wage earners, migrants, and youth worldwide, to defend our way of life and livelihoods. ------------------------- > THROUGH THIS INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTION, LA VIA CAMPESINA IS ENCOURAGING PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS AROUND THE WORLD TO SEND US DIVERSE MATERIALS IN THE FORM OF MUSIC, VIDEO CLIPS, POETRY, PAINTINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ILLUSTRATIONS, DOCUMENTARIES AND PODCASTS. ------------------------- ARTISTS AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCERS COULD TAKE INSPIRATION FROM ANY OF THE THEMES LISTED BELOW: 1. Specific experiences of Food Sovereignty- Peasant Cooperatives, Rural fairs, Seeds, Agroecological Schools, Community Radio, etc. 2. Challenges and Threats posed by Industrial Agricultural politics and its impact on agrarian reform, land grabbing, climate change and criminalisation of social movements. 3. The dispute between the peasant agroecological model of production and the industrial model of agribusinesses. 4. The urgency of a new society that is built on the principles of global solidarity, internationalism and social justice ------------------------- [3] In 2016, the musical group Che Sudaka dedicated the song "Cuando será" (When it will be) to La Vía Campesina in their fight for Food Sovereignty. > "_You that cultivate fields_, _You that cultivate dreams_ _You with your friends_, _Collect the food_ _For you, I present this song_, _So that you feel inspiration_ _That you know you are not alone_, _There are many fighting against time_." [4] Additionally, several supporters, activists, friends and allies of LVC have been inspired by our fight. They have captured this art in paintings, poems and murals, songs and various other forms of expression. Last year, during the COVID 19 pandemic, Francisco Daniel, a friend of Movement Without Land, painted the main image of our campaign #TimetoTransform. We want to unite these beautiful artistic expressions in favour of Food Sovereignty and share them with you all in a VIRTUAL GALLERY DURING OCTOBER 2021 AS PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE ACTION – FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, AGAINST MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES. We have set out to gather all the materials from August until September of 2021. ------------------------- These materials also will contribute to the spread, communication and political formation of La Via Campesina, uniting collective forces for a transformation and liberation project. It is an attempt to break away from the alienation caused by a mass-media culture. These art forms are symbolic of our resistance against the corporate-political nexus and their economic, cultural, and political oppression of the rural areas. This call for artistic expression centres around the theme of Food Sovereignty. The text below serves as a close guide to how we understand Food Sovereignty within the movement. Artists are free to interpret this vision of Food Sovereignty and base it in their socio-cultural and political context. _WHAT IS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY? _ _Food Sovereignty "is the people's right to healthy food and culturally suitable products through sustainable and environmentally friendly methods. It is also the right of the people to define their agricultural food systems. Food sovereignty is intrinsically linked to the debate over what we envision for rural areas and what type of development should be applied. It is about defining what kind of food to produce and why? To prioritise production for local markets, in line with a culture of local and regional consumption. It defends the interests and the inclusion of future generations. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current regime of corporate food trade and points at the nutritional, rural, pastoralist and fishing systems determined by local producers. Food Sovereignty prioritises the local and national economies and markets, empowers rural and family agriculture, traditional fisheries and shepherding and the production, distribution and consumption of food based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food Sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees a fair income to everyone and the rights for the consumers to food and nutrition. It assures that the rights to collectively own and manage our lands, water, seeds, livestock and biodiversity so that these means of production remain in the hands of those who produce the food. Food Sovereignty involves new social relationships free from oppression and inequality between men and women, differences, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations. "_ Let this be a moment to transform our resistance through music, poems, documentaries and inspiring images that expose the urgency of Food Sovereignty as a solution against hunger, climate change and authoritarianism. ------------------------- * INFORMATION: title of the work, full name, country, organisation (optional), social media profiles (optional) * LANGUAGE: mainly in Spanish, English, French but local languages are welcome with the respective translation (Reduce the text for best accessibility) * FORMATS: Video, audio, Word, Jpg or PDFs, without borders, backgrounds or watermarks. * DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 16 September 2021 * EMAIL: Email all the materials with the subject _"Llamado Artistas por la Soberanía Alimentaria"_ to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org with a copy (CC) to Viviana.rojas(a)viacampesina.org. ------------------------- La Via Campesina will select and curate from the compiled material and exhibit them in a virtual gallery that will be available on the website of LVC. The curated work will also be distributed as a digital catalogue, acknowledging the contribution of each artist. [5] [6] [7] [8] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/1996-Rom-en.… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/nyeleni-newsletter-communicating-for-food-sover… [3] https://youtu.be/JwB0PXM8NMg [4] https://vimeo.com/440624449 [5] http://www.facebook.com/ViaCampesinaOfficial [6] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina [7] http://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official [8] http://viacampesina.org/en

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La Via Campesina demands an end to the blockade against Cuba and denounces the destabilization campaign
by La Via Campesina 23 Jul '21

23 Jul '21

As stated by National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) "the losses that the blockade has caused to Cuban agriculture in these 62 years are enormous. But it has also demonstrated the capacity of farmers in the search for alternatives and solutions to the problems caused by the blockade imposed on Cuba". CUBA HAS WORKED NON-STOP TO IMPLEMENT POLICIES TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND FOOD SECURITY WHICH HAVE EVEN BEEN DESCRIBED AS ADVANCED PROGRAMS BY INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE FAO. In the midst of the complex epidemiological situation that the country is going through, the call for sabotage, vandalism and violence is nothing more than a vile act of opportunism and intervention. As La Via Campesina we join the international community in demanding an end to the immoral blockade against Cuba, and we call on our member organizations, friends and allies to mobilize in solidarity and to remain alert to any kind of interference and attack against the sovereignty of Cuba. Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples! Read the Full Statement [1] Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-demands-an-end-to-the-blockade…

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La Via Campesina denounces Israeli military raid on UAWC headquarters
by La Via Campesina 12 Jul '21

12 Jul '21

LA VIA CAMPESINA DENOUNCES ISRAELI MILITARY RAID ON UAWC HEADQUARTERS 11 JULY 2021 INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY [1] (Harare, 10 July 2021) La Via Campesina condemns the Israeli military raid, the damage done to the headquarters of its member organisation, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) on Wednesday 7 July. The Israeli military ordered the office to be closed for six months. We denounce the continued persecution and harassment of UAWC in attempt to disrupt their work. The raid and closure order represents a provocative assault on Palestinian sovereignty, considering the fact that UAWC headquarters are located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli military raid and closure order is part of a well planned aggressive defamation and defunding campaign against not only UAWC but the Palestinian civil society at large. It is aimed at neutralizing any form of peaceful organization of the Palestinian people. UAWC is not only one of the most active organizations in Palestine, but also spearheads the struggle for food sovereignty and peasant rights in the Arab region and North Africa (ArNa). It also coordinates La Via Campesina's regional articulation process of peasant movements the region. Through its work in and across rural Palestine, UAWC has made extremely valuable and life-changing contributions to the lives of thousands of smallholder peasants, fishers, herders and agricultural workers. Following the recent military attacks against Gaza in May which damaged many infrastructures, UAWC is actively involved in rebuilding the livelihoods of the affected communities. In response to UAWC success, Israeli entities continuously engage in sustained and brutal incitement campaign against the organisation as it provides peaceful and rightful agricultural support to Palestinian peasants, especially those in area "C"- an area facing accelerated Israeli occupation through land grabbing and annexation. We call on our members, as well as allied organizations, to raise awareness on the Palestinian situation, and increase their voices in denouncing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and call for an end in violence against the Palestinian people. We also call on the international community and human rights organisations to demand that the necessary measures be taken to stop the violence and advance in the construction of peace. In solidarity with the Palestinian people, we increase our call to strengthen the BDS movement to undermine the terrible policy of apartheid that our Palestinian sisters and brothers suffer today. This is urgent, it cannot wait any longer! Lets join and commit to the Boycott Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign [2] in order to end Israeli Apartheid and its war crimes. First and foremost, join BDS now [3]! The boycott is economic, academic and cultural [4]! La Via Campesina stands in solidarity with Palestinian people and their legitimate organizations as they resist the oppressor! GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE! GLOBALIZE HOPE! Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-for/international-solidari… [2] https://bdsmovement.net/ [3] https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved [4] https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/join-a-bds-campaign

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