Stavroula Pabst Dutch farmers’ protests offer a preview of the resistance to come as transnational “green” billionaires advance a “reset” of the global food system. The elite agenda threatens to deepen an international cost of living crisis and spark unrest well beyond The Netherlands. Ingrid de Sain is a Dutch farmer who lives in the Northern…
Category: LA VIA CAMPESINA
Breaking the Map with the Machete’s Edge: The Internationalism of the Landless
João Pedro Stedile Landless, but with a lot of history, the peasants of Brazil’s MST have been practicing internationalism as a principle since 1984. As in their own flag, the machete overflows the borders and traces the itinerary of new possible maps. For the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil (MST), the dialectic between nationalism…
Brazilian Youth: Right Now is Critical
In São Paulo, we spoke to Raiara Pieres, a member of the Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining (Movimento pela Soberania Popular na Mineração – MAM) and of La Via Campesina Brasil. Raiara gives a rundown of some of the most important issues for the working class as Brazil heads into elections in October. Interviewed…
“Mistica is One of the Principles Uniting La Via Campesina”
Resilience Our colleagues, Priscilla Claeys and Jasber Singh, are launching a new series as part of the Agroecology in Motion column to shed light on an underexplored aspect of food system transformation: the role of spirituality and religion in social movement struggles for food sovereignty. In order to deepen their inquiry, they will speak with various food…
Honduran Campesino Leader Explains the ZEDEs
Kawsachan News A wide range of sectors in Honduras are continuing to mobilize against the Economic Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs) with the general election now one month away. Campesino, indigenous and Afro-descendant movements and communities say the large scale territorial concessions amount to a flagrant violation of national sovereignty and will result in mass displacement. Frequent protests against…
Food Sovereignty: A Manifesto for the Future of Our Planet
“Our historic task is to ensure that no human being goes hungry” 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….
People Who Produce Most of the World’s Food Continue to Fight against Agribusiness-led UN Food Summit
La Via Campesina Following the counter-mobilizations to oppose the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit in July, which gathered more than 9,000 participants from all over the world, civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ groups continue to mobilize this week against the Summit itself, happening on 23 September in New York. The People’s Autonomous Response to the UN Food Systems Summit (UN…
How Big Corporations and Bill Gates Took Over the UN food Summit
Large corporations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took over the United Nations Food Systems Summit, abandoning small farmers on behalf of Big Ag companies, endangering food sovereignty. Video by La Vía Campesina North America: https://viacampesina.org and Camila Escalante: https://twitter.com/PrensaCamila The UN system is being put into the hands of corporations as Antonio Guterres…
Unreading Colonial Food Systems
Maya Burke Like many people who went through U.S. public school systems, I am intimately familiar with institutional food; canned vegetables, square cut pizza, frozen & highly processed mystery meats, syrupy fruit cups, all of that. Institutional food is low-cost, low in nutritional value, and arguably pretty gross. I remember asking our school superintendent why…
La Via Campesina: Food Sovereignty – 25 Years in the Making
Jaime AmorimThe concept of food sovereignty, in its 25 years of construction, raises the debate of not only bringing food to people, but it emphasizes the process of production of that food. Photo: Felipe Betim Jaime Amorim of La Via Campesina discusses the importance of food sovereignty as the pandemic induced global economic crisis has…
Letter to World Leaders on the Occasion of the Leaders’ Summit on Climate
International People’s Assembly It is common knowledge that we are at a decisive moment for human survival and for the biodiversity of our planet. There is a serious environmental and public health crisis, caused by crimes committed continuously by the greed for profit. The research and scientific data are more and more evident, which you…
Historic Farmers’ Parade Takes Center Stage on India’s Republic Day
Peoples Dispatch Photo: Newsclick On January 26, which is celebrated as India’s Republic Day, tens of thousands of farmers rode into the capital New Delhi. Their demand: the withdrawal of three laws that were pushed through parliament in an undemocratic manner January 26, the day India became a Republic, is traditionally celebrated at Rajpath —…
La Via Campesina: Colombia Peace Process Characterized by Non-compliance and Surge in Violence
Fourth anniversary of the signing of the Peace Agreement in Colombia November 24th was the fourth anniversary of the day when the Colombian State and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) signed an agreement to end the oldest armed conflict in Latin America.The hope that this event had raised among Colombian people and the…
Colombia: Fensuagro Denounces the Serious Human Rights Violation Against its Organization
La Via Campesina Communiqué The National Federation of Agricultural Unions – FENSUAGRO denounces before the national and international community the serious human rights situation against our organization. Facts: On November 3, 2020, Elsa Nury Martínez Silva, leader and current president of FENSUAGRO, received a pamphlet from the Aguilas Negras – Bloque Capital through WhatsApp. The…
Caribbean Food Sovereignty During Covid-19
Kasmine D. ForbesCassava production in Colombia’s southwestern Cauca department (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT). Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, disruptions to global food and agriculture prompted Caribbean nation-states to increase local food production to enhance regional food security. In the wake of such efforts, the Caribbean Agricultural Research Institute (CARDI) unveiled a comprehensive plan to support these small…
The Winds of Change: COVID-19 Impact on Peasants, Rural Workers and Other Marginalized Groups
La Via Campesina Within the framework of our strategy of formation/training, information and political analysis in defense of Food Sovereignty and Peasant Agriculture, with the slogan “Sow the seeds of struggle and resistance, and cultivate our rights!”, we share a second report on the COVID-19 and the situation of the peasantry. It has been five…
Feeding the People in Times of Pandemic: The Food Sovereignty Approach in Nicaragua
Rita Jill Clark-Gollub (Washington), Erika Takeo (Managua), and Avery Raimondo (Los Angeles) “A nation that cannot feed itself is not free.” – Fausto Torrez, Nicaraguan Rural Workers Association An array of UN agencies is predicting a global hunger pandemic triggered by COVID-19 lockdowns, with the head of the World Food Program stating that there is…
Colombia: Despite the Pandemic, Farmers Continue to Produce and Defend Territory
In the midst of the pandemic and social isolation, we interviewed Nury Martínez, a social leader from the peasant community, who provided an overview of the political and social reality of rural Colombia and how they are dealing with the situation. A war is under way in Colombian territory, a conflict that has been going…
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