La Via Campesina: Building an International Movement for Food and Seed Sovereignty

[polly7]

By Elizabeth Mpofu and Simone Adler
Source: Toward Freedom
February 6, 2016

Elizabeth Mpofu of Zimbabwe is General Coordinator of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, a coalition of 164 organizations in 73 countries around the world, representing about 200 million peasant, landless, indigenous, and other farmers. She is also Chairperson of Zimbabwe Organic Smallholder Farmers Forum, and herself a farmer.

Who we are fighting for is every single peasant farmer – more than 200 million – on the planet. People are eager to join hands in building a global voice.

Transnational corporations are pushing policies in African countries for industrial farming and the use of GMO [genetically modified] seeds, while grabbing our land and [stealing] our natural resources. No one should come and tell us how to produce food.

In Via Campesina, we believe in controlling our land and seeds and producing the healthy food that we want, the way we want. Our response is to fight for food sovereignty against these transnational corporations that are connected to the [New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition of the] G8, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the World Trade Organization, and free trade agreements that don’t recognize the needs of peasants or the poor.

Via Campesina formed [in 1993] when [a group of] peasants united to form a strong voice and strategize on the issues they were suffering from. Over time, Via Campesina became a global movement to advocate for policies which really meet the needs of the poor and marginalized, while fighting against those that do not. We develop global actions on agroecology, biodiversity, seeds, land and water territories, stopping transnational corporations, climate and environmental justice, trade, and peasant rights.

The biggest challenges to peasant farmers in Africa are threats to our agriculture and native, local seeds. Transnational corporations and the green revolution for Africa have introduced contract farming[in which the farmer commits to producing a product in a certain manner and the company commits to purchasing it, but often with unequal power dynamics in which farmers provide both the land and cheap labor while carrying most of the risk] and GMO seeds without being transparent about the implications. Peasant farmers without the resources to produce enough food are pressured to accept these contracts and new means of production. They are forced to pay corporations back for what they’ve received [GMO seeds or loans]. If a season doesn’t go well, they are left to suffer, selling their livestock or being jailed for not being able to pay.

Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/la-via-campesina-building-an-international-movement-for-food-and-seed-sovereignty/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. @via_campesina for Twitter users. nt

[polly7]

2. Thank you very much. nt.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. You're welcome. I noticed, when I followed them, that among the other people I follow

another account following them was @FAOKnowledge, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN account.

[polly7]

4. Thank you again! nt.