Via Campesina

International Peasant Movement >

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1st Encounter of Agroecology Trainers in
Africa Region 1 of La Via Campesina

12-20 June 2011

Shashe Declaration

We are 47 people from 22 organizations in 18 countries (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Central African Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Portugal, USA, France, and Germany).  We are farmers and staff representing member organizations of La Via Campesina, along with allies from other farmer organizations and networks, NGOs, academics, researchers, interpreters and others.

We have been meeting at the Shashe Endogenous Development Training Centre in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe to plan how to promote agroecology in our Region (Southern, Eastern & Central Africa). Here we have been privileged to witness firsthand the successful combination of agrarian reform with organic farming and agroecology carried out by local small holder farming families.  In what were once large cattle ranches owned by three large farmers who owned 800 head of cattle and produced no grain or anything else, there are now more than 365 small holder peasant farming families with more than 3,400 head of cattle, who also produce a yearly average of 1 to 2 tonnes of grain per family plus vegetables and other products, in many cases using agroecological methods and local peasant seeds.  This experience strengthens our commitment to and belief in agroecology and agrarian reform as fundamental pillars in the construction of Food Sovereignty.

Threats and Challenges to Small Holder Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

Our region of Africa is currently facing challenges and threats that together undermine the food security and well-being of our communities, displace small holder farmers and undercut their livelihoods, undermine our collective ability to feed our nations, and cause grave damage to the soil, the environment and the Mother Earth.

These include local and regional manifestations of the global food price crisis and the climate crisis that have been produced by runaway neoliberal policies and the greed and profit-taking of Transnational Corporations (TNCs).   Cheap subsidized food imports brought by TNCs, made possible by misguided free trade agreements, lowers the prices we receive for our farm products, forcing families to abandon farming and migrate to cities, while undermining local and national food production. Foreign investors, invited in by some of our governments, grab the best farm land, displacing food producing local farmers, and redirecting that land toward environmentally devastating mining, agrofuel plantations that feed cars instead of people, and other export plantations that do nothing to build Food Sovereignty for our peoples, and only enrich a few.

At the same time, uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from Developed Countries and from the global corporate food system based on long distance transport and industrial agriculture are changing the climate in ways that directly affect farmers.  Our lands become more arid, with water ever more scarce, we face rising temperatures, and increased extreme weather conditions like severe storms, floods and droughts.  The dates of the rainy season have become completely unpredictable, so that nobody knows when to plant anymore.  The changing climate is also implicated in epidemics of communicable diseases of humans, crops and livestock.  All of this hurts farming families and affects food production.

We face TNCs who want to force GMO seeds into our countries, whether or not we currently have GMO bans, and agencies like the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) who conspire with TNCs like Cargill and Monsanto and with our governments to buy off national research and seed systems in order to sell GMO seeds. These seeds threaten the integrity of our local varieties and the health of our consumers.  The same companies even manipulate regional farmer organizations to push GMOs, and we call on such organizations to resist being used in such ways.

While our soils, agroecosytems and forests are ever more degraded by industrial agriculture and plantations, and local seed biodiversity is lost, the costs of production under the conventional “Green Revolution” model are more expensive and out of the reach of small holder farmers.  The price of chemical fertilizer on the world market, for example, has risen more than 300% in the last few years.

Faced with this bleak situation for small holder agriculture and Food Sovereignty in our region, as members of organizations belonging to La Via Campesina we take the following positions:

Positions of La Via Campesina in Africa Region 1

We believe that…

Agroecological farming as practiced by small holder farmers, and Food Sovereignty policies, offer the only reasonable and feasible solutions to these multiple challenges facing our Region.

Only agroecological methods (also called sustainable agriculture, organic farming, ecological agriculture, etc.) can restore soils and agroecosystems that have been degraded by industrial agriculture.  Even chemicals do not work after severe degradation, but with agroecology we can restore soil organic matter and fertility, along with functional agroecosystem processes and services like nutrient recycling, soil biology, natural pest control, etc.  We have seen that small holder agroecological systems have much greater total productivity than industrial monocultures, with little or no purchased inputs, reducing the dependency and increasing the autonomy and well-being of rural families while producing abundant and healthy food for our peoples. Global research by La Via Campesina demonstrates that Sustainable Peasant Agriculture Can Feed the World, based on endogenous knowledge and agroecology.

The global food system currently generates between 44 and 57% of global greenhouse gas emissions, almost all of which could be eliminated by transforming the food system based on the principles of agroecology, agrarian reform and Food Sovereignty.  Sustainable Peasant Agriculture Cools the Planet, and this is our best solution to climate change.

In order to adapt to a changing climate we need the greater resiliency of diversified agroecological systems (and water conservation and harvesting, watershed management, agroforestry, ground cover, etc.) and the genetic diversity of local peasant seeds and peasant seed systems.  We demand that our governments withdraw support from the corporate seed industry with it’s standardized and often genetically modified seeds, and instead support peasant seed systems based on recovering, saving, multiplying, storing, breeding and exchanging seeds at the local level.

Our national education and research systems are heavily biased toward the very industrial agriculture practices that are killing our planet and contributing to the failure of Africans to feed ourselves.  We demand the reorientation of research toward farmer-led methods and agroecology, and the transformation of curricula at primary and secondary schools levels, and in higher education, to focus on agroecology.

We call for an end to trade liberalization and the renewed protection of domestic markets so that African farmers can receive the fair prices that will enable us to boost production and feed our peoples.

We call on governments to create comprehensive programs to support agroecological farming by small holders and to rebuild Food Sovereignty, including genuine agrarian reform and the defense of peasant lands from land grabbing, the reorientation of government food procurement from agribusiness toward purchasing ecological food at fair prices from small holders to supply schools, hospitals, institutional cafeterias, etc., as a way to support farmers and to provide healthy food to children, sick people and government employees, and programs of production credit for small holders engaged in ecological farming instead of subsidies tied to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

At the COP-16 in Cancun, Mexico, the governments of the world (except Bolivia) met to conduct business with TNCs who traffic in false solutions to climate changes like agrofuels, GMOs, carbon markets, REDD+, etc., instead of meeting to seriously and effectively reverse global warming through real emission reductions by Developed Countries and the transformation of our global food, energy and transport systems.  We demand that our governments behave more responsibly at COP-17 in Durban, South Africa, refusing to sign agreements imposed by the North and by TNCs, instead supporting the Cochabamba Principles on the Climate and the Rights of the Mother Earth.

Commitments of La Via Campesina

While we demand that our governments act in all the ways mentioned above, and will turn up the pressure on them to do so, we will not wait for them.  Instead we pledge to continue to build agroecology and Food Sovereignty from below.  We pledge to take the following practical steps:

We will build organizational structures in La Via Campesina at the regional level to support our national member organizations in their work to promote agroecology among their member families.  This includes regional training programs, exchange visits, the production and sharing of educational materials, and the identification and documentation of successful cases in the region so that all can learn the lessons they offer. Among the structures we will build is a network of agroecology trainers and practitioners in La Via Campesina in our Region.

We will promote the creation of agroecology training programs and schools in our organizations, and farmer-to-farmer and community-to-community agroecology promotion programs.

Through our own organizations we will promote the creation and strengthening of local peasant seed systems.

We will document the experience in Zimbabwe of agrarian reform and organic farming by beneficiary families, as successful steps toward Food Sovereignty that we who are in other countries can learn from.

We will work to “keep carbon in the ground and in trees” in the areas under our control, by promoting agroforestry, tree planting, agroecology, energy conservation, and by fighting land grabs for mining and industrial plantations.

We will engage and pressure governments at all levels (local, traditional provincial, national and regional) to adopt Public Policies that favor agroecology and Food Sovereignty.

We will build a powerful small holder farmer and peasant voice to be present with other sectors of civil society at COP-17 in Durban, and at Rio +20 in Brazil, with the message that we oppose false solutions to climate change and demand the adoption of the Cochabamba Principles.  We will insist on Small Holder Sustainable Agriculture and Food Sovereignty as the most important true solutions to climate change.

Africans! We Can Feed Ourselves with Agroecology and Food Sovereignty!

Sustainable Agriculture by Small Holder Farmers Cools the Planet!

No to the Corporate Food System, GMOs and Land Grabbing!

Yes to Agrarian Reform and an Agroecological Food System!

Globalize Struggle!  Globalize Hope!

Masvingo District, Zimbabwe, 20 June 2011

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La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790, Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

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CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE CONVICTED CJA SPOKESPERSONS

On the 1st of June 2011 the High Court of Denmark sentenced Tannie Nyboe and Stine Gry Jonassen two months of prison and two months of suspended prison (one year of probation) for their involvement in the non-violent civil disobedient mass action “Reclaim Power – Push for Climate Justice” that took place on the 16th of December 2009 during the COP15 in Copenhagen (i.e., the 15th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

The purpose of the action, which was mobilised by the global network Climate Justice Action (CJA), was to hold a popular assembly which challenged the legitimacy of the official COP negotiations. Protesters from outside and critical accredited participants from inside were to create a platform for the people and groups mostly affected by climate change, whose voices were (and still are) not being listened to in the official COP negotiations (See this video for a summary of the action).

Acting as Danish spokesperson for the CJA in the period leading up to the COP15, speaking with Danish media and the police about the purpose of the action and its non-violent action codex, Tannie and Stine Gry were asked to facilitate communication on the sound truck during the Reclaim Power action. This led to them being arrested and held personally responsible for the action. The main evidence used against them was that they allegedly shouted “push” from the sound truck during the demonstration, along with thousands of other protesters.

On the 25th of November 2010 the Copenhagen District Court found Tannie and Stine Gry guilty in planning and instigating violence against the police (§119), serious disturbance of public peace and order (§134a), trespassing (§264) and vandalism (§291). They received a four months suspended prison sentence with one year of probation (for more on this, see a summary here and a list of international media coverage here).

Not satisfied with the sentence, the police decided to appeal to the High Court of Denmark. Although this resulted in the fourth charge of vandalism (§291) being dropped, the appeal also resulted in Tannie and Stine Gry receiving a stiffer sentence than before, so that they now face two months of prison and two months of suspended prison with one year of probation (See media coverage in English here). In addition to this Tannie and Stine Gry face high court costs, possibly up to 30.000 Euros or more.

But WE ALL SHOUTED PUSH and we all pushed together for climate justice the 16th of December 2009!

In holding two individuals responsible for a whole movement’s collective decision-making and collective protests, Tannie and Stine Gry’s verdict violates and undermines fundamental principles of social movement politics. The case clearly demonstrates how societal structures in “democratic countries” like Denmark scare people from protesting and organizing politically, killing off critical voices that dare to stand forward in the media.

What we are witnessing is a violation of the freedom of speech and our right to assembly, in other words a tactic of repression aimed at silencing social movements. For people to not be afraid to speak out in the future we need to show solidarity with individuals who are targets of political repression. It is thus of fundamental importance that there is a collective response of solidarity with Tannie and Stine Gry.

We cannot change the prison sentence; Tannie and Stine Gry will pay for the action of a whole movement by having their bodies locked behind prison walls for two months minimum. However, we can do something to cover the court costs collectively, therefore the Climate Collective encourages individuals, groups, collectives and organisations that were involved in the CJA mobilisation leading up to the COP15, and/or that participated in the Reclaim Power action on the 16th of December 2009, and others that wish to show solidarity with Tannie and Stine Gry, to help covering our common court expenses.

This can be done in a variety of ways: individuals can for instance contribute with their salary earned from one day of work, groups and collectives can make support dinners or parties, more established NGOs are encouraged to donate money to the cause from their funds. These ideas are not exhaustive and activists are encouraged to think creatively and contribute in whatever ways they can and feel like.

No individuls should be held responsible for the collective actions of a whole movement!

Make a donation via paypal to cover Tannie and Stine Gry’s court expenses now by visiting this link:
http://www.climatecollective.org/da/take-action/donate/

Donations made by credit card through paypal are quick, easy and free of charge. Just note that the Climate Collective bank account in Denmark is under the name “Græsrøddernes og civilsamfundets logistik under cop15”, so do not panic if you read this name – you are donating to the right cause!
Alternatively international transactions (from outside Denmark) can be made to:

•       Bank name: Merkur Bank
•       IBAN: DK2484010001125014
•       SWIFT CODE:
MEKUDK21 for euros
VEHODK22 for international valuta except euros
Transactions from Denmark can be made to:
•       Reg: 8401
•       Konto: 1125014

For more updates and information about the trials visit the Climate Collectives website: http://www.climatecollective.org

Call for solidarity is also attached as a PDF file

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La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790, Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

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Call for solidarity with the convicted CJA spokespersons PDF

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Via Campesina – Press release
G20-Agriculture: Hundreds of organizations say STOP farm land grabbing

(Paris, June 20, 2011) Hundreds of civil society organisations, including farmers’ movements, women’s groups and non-governmental organisations, will launch a global appeal against farmland grabbing during the G20 meeting on Agriculture in Paris on June 22 and 23.

Over 500 organizations from around the world (1) have joined the „Dakar Appeal Against Land Grabbing“ that was originally drawn up at the World Social Forum in Dakar last February (2).
While agriculture ministers from the world’s 20 richest countries are discussing what to do about food price volatility and the growing hunger crisis, millions of hectares of fertile land, along with their water resources, are being grabbed from peasants, pastoralists, herders, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples to be converted into massive agribusiness operations by private investors who want to produce food supplies or agro-fuels for international markets. As a consequence, millions of peasant families and other rural and indigenous folk are being thrown off their lands and deprived of their livelihoods.
During a major academic conference on land grabbing earlier this year in Brighton, UK, research studies of over 100 cases of “large scale land investments” were presented. They generally show no positive effects for local communities (3). On the contrary, in many cases people are being evicted and pushed into poverty.
In the Dakar Appeal, being handed over to the French Government chairing the G20, major civil society organisations are calling upon governments to immediately cease all massive land grabs and return the plundered land to communities. At the moment the G20 facilitates land grabbing by supporting Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI – referred to as PRAI in the draft G20 text).
The organisations call on the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to definitively reject the World Bank-driven principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) which are illegitimate and cannot bring equity to land grabbing, and to develop effective mandatory guidelines for land tenure that respect and protect peoples’ rights especially the right to food. Instead an inclusive process at CFS should be launched on what kind of investments are needed to support small holder food producers, women and men.
The petition states that national governments and international institutions should guarantee peoples’ rights to land instead of signing leases with big private investors. Sustainable family farming, agroecological production models and strong local markets are recognized by many as the best way to feed people and to protect the planet.
Contact persons in Paris:
Geneviève Savigny – Confédération paysanne/European Coordination La Via campesina
+33-625551687
Romario Rosetto – La Via Campesina Brazil +33-625551687
Antoine Bouhey – Peuples Solidaires/ActionAid, +33-1-48582185
Jeanne Moreen Jorand – CCFD +33-1-44828000

(1) List of signatories below
(2) Read the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/dakar/petition.html
(3) see International Conference on Global Land Grabbing

List of signatories:
Acción por la Biodiversidad

ACORD (Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development)

ACRA

Action for Peace & Human Rights

Action Solidarité Tiers Monde Luxembourg

Action Village India

ActionAid International

ADD Medenine (Association pour le Développement Durable) – Tunisia

ADeD ONG

ADG asbl (Aide au Développement Gembloux asbl) – Belgique

ADIF (Association pour le Développement des Initiatives Féminines) – RD Congo

AEFJN (Africa-Europe Faith & Justice Network)

AFASPA (Association Française d’Amitié et de solidarité avec les Peuples d’Afrique)

Africa Contact

Africa Reporters

African Biodiversity Network

African Centre for Biosafety

Africasciez

Afrika-Europa Netwerk Netherlands

Agencia Popular de Comunicacion Suramericana

Agronomes et Vétérinaires sans frontières

AGTER (Améliorer la Gouvernance de la Terre, de l’Eau et des Ressources naturelles)

AHVI (African Human Voice International)

AIAB (Associazione Italiana Agricoltura Biologica)

AIDC (Alternative Information & development Centre)

AITEC (Association Internationale de Techniciens, Experts et Chercheurs)

Alba Sud, España

Alianza Internacional de Habitantes México

Alianza SARA

Alianza Sara Honduras

Alianza Social Continental

Alliance malienne pour refonder la gouvernance en Afrique

Alliance Sud – Swiss Alliance of Development Organisations

AlterCultures Association

Altermundo

AMA (Aniban ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura) – Union of Agricultural Workers

AMAP (Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminacion de los pueblos)

Amigos da Terra Brasil

Amigos de la Tierra Argentina

Anjuman-E-Muzareen Punjab Pakistan (A Movement of Landless Peasants)

AOPP – Mali (Association des Organisations Professionnelles Paysannes du Mali)

APDH (Association pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme) – Burundi

API (Indonesian Peasant Alliance)

ARBIO – Perú

Arcs –Arci Cultura e Sviluppo

ARDS (Association pour la Réhabilitation des Défavorisés Sociaux) – Burkina Faso

ARGE Weltläden

ARPA-ATL (Association Régionale des Producteurs d’Ananas de l’Atlantique)

Arradon Terre du Monde

Artisans Du Monde Privas

Asamblea de Unidad Cantonal de Montúfar

ASD – Bangladesh

Aseed Europe (Action for Solidarity, Environment, Equality and Diversity)

AsiaDHRRA

ASO (Anywaa Survival Organisation)

ASOATITLIN ONG

Asociacion Campesina CIPA Carahue, Chile

Asociacion Civil Feriantes de Pirane

Asociacion civil vada de c del u

Asociacion civil vida de c del u -argentina-

Asociacion de Pequenos Productores de Cacao de Upala

Asociacion de Trabajadores y Extrabajadores Afectadoc por Namagon y Fumazonea de Nicaragua

ASOCIACION DE TRABAJADORES Y EXTRABAJADORES AFECTADOS POR NEMAGON Y FUMAZONEA DE NICARAGUA

Asociación Escuela Ciudadana

Asociacion Misioneros de Jesus

Asociacion QÂ’Anil San Juan Sacatepequez

Asociacion Salvar una Vida

ASP-DROL (Association Solidarité Pour le Droit au Logement)

ASPROCIG – Colombia

Association Kokopelli

Association Solidarité Guyane

Association Tierra Politis

Association Transcultures

Association Villages Durables « VD-asbl », Presqu’île de Buzi-Bulenga, Sud-Kivu – RD Congo

Associazione Rurale Italiana

Assoziation A e.V. Berlin/Hamburg

ASTERADHD (Association Togolaise d’Etude, de Recherche et d’Appui au Développement Humain Durable) – Togo

ATALC (Amigos de la Tierra America Latina y el Caribe)

ATI (Asociación de Trabajo Interdisciplinario)

ATPF (ONG Aménagement des Terroirs et Productions Forestières)

ATTAC France

ATTAC Japan

ATTAC Spain

AUCS (Associazione Universitaria per la Cooperazione e lo Sviluppo)

Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

AVAD (Association Vision Action Développement)

Bananalink

Bangladesh Krishok Federation

BaseIS (BASE. Investigaciones Sociales)

BC Food Systems Network

BIDII, MACHAKOS

Biofuelwatch

BIOS Argentina

Biowatch South Africa

Bizilur – Asociacion para la cooperacion y el desarrollo de los pueblos

Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, Tillery

Blue Planet Project

Brasserie Vapeur

Brasilien und Uganda Hilfe e.V.

Bread for all

Bremen Information Center for Human Rights and Development

Brot für die Welt

BUKO – Kampagne gegen Biopiraterie

CAB (Coordination des Associations de Boulmiougou)

CADE/Japan (Centro de Accion para el Desarrollo y el Derecho)

CADTM (Comité pour l’annulation de la dette du tiers monde) Belgique

CADTM (Comité pour l’Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde) Suisse

Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

Caritas Austria

Carre Géo & Environnement

Carré Géo Environnement

CCDE (Center for Community, Democracy and Ecology)

CCVC (Coordinacion Campesina des Valle des Cauca)

CECCAM (Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano)

CEFAN (La Francophonie en Amérique du Nord)

CEIBA – Amigos de la Tierra Guatemala

CENESTA (Centre for Sustainable Development) Iran

Censat Agua Viva

Cense Equi’voc

Centre Mamou – Centre Ressources Communication et Développement

Centro de Investigacion y Promocion del Campesinado

Centro de Mujeres Aymaras Candelaria, Bolivia

Centro Ecologico

Centro Ecologista Renacer

Centro Internazionale Crocevia

Centro Social y Cultural Ambiental Ina Panqara

CEPA (Centre d’Ecologia i Projectes Alternatius)

CERAI (Centro de Estudios Rurales y de Agricultura Internacional)

CESTA – Amigos de la Tierra El Salvodor

CETRI – Centre Tricontinental

CFJ (Citizens for Justice) – Friends of the Earth Malawi

CFSI (Comité français pour la solidarité internationale)

CHRR (Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation)

CIDER (Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo)

CIDSE

CIEL (Center for International Environmental Law)

CIFAES (Universidad Rural Paulo Freire en Tierra de Campos)

CIFRE (Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche)

CILONG (Centre d’information et de liaison des ONG) – Tchad

Ciranda – International Ciranda of Shared Communication

Citoyen du monde

CLM (Coordinadora Asociaciones Inmigrantes)

CNCR (Conseil National de Concertation et de Coopération des Ruraux)

CNOP (Coordination Nationale de Organisations Paysannes du Mali)

Codas/Caritas Bafoussam

CODEFF – Amigos de la Tierra Chile

Codemu (Consejo de desarrollo municipal)

COECOCEIBA – Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica

COHA (Council on Hemispheric Affairs)

Colectivo Voces Ecologicas

Collectif Anti-OGM 66

Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches – Tany

Comité français pour la solidarité international

Comité logement Trois-Rivières

Comite Resistencia y Dignidad Adolfina Villanueva

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Mauritania inc.

Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch

Compagnie Culturelle N’Dunzi – Pointe-Noire, Congo Brazzaville

CONAMURI (Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Rurales e Indigenas)

Confédération Paysanne de Bretagne

Confédération Paysanne nationale

Confédération Paysanne 11

Confédération Paysanne de l’Aveyron

Confédération Paysanne du Calvados

Confédération Paysanne du Morbihan

Confédération Paysanne 79

CONGCOOP (Coordinacion de ONG y cooperativas)

Consejo Comunitario Rural de los Pueblos de Montecristi

Consumer Protection Organisation of Nigeria

Convergencia para la Democracia Social de Guinea Ecuatorial

Cooper Institute

Coordinadora de Pueblos Indigenas de Occidente « Adiact-Agateyte »

Coordinadora Ni una sola mina

Coordination SUD

COPACO (Confédération Paysanne du Congo)

CORDAP (Conseil Rural pour le Développement de l’Agriculture et la Pêche)

Corporacion Heritage Colombia

Corporacion Plan y Accion

Corporacion rio Guadalajara

Corporación Sembrar

Corporate Europe Observatory

COSPE

Council of Canadians

CPM (Coalition Paysanne de Madagascar)

CRBM (Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale)

CRID (Centre de Recherche et d’Information pour le développement)

CSMM (Centro de Documentacion en Derecho Humanos Segundo Montes Mozo SJ)

Ctm Altromercato

CVM (Community of Volunteer for the World)

Daughters of Charity

Daughters of Mumbi Global Ressource Center (Kenya)

Daulat Institute West Sumatera Indonesia

Decidamos, Campana por la Expresion Ciudadana

Déclaration de Berne – Berne Declaration

Della Zia Productos Organicos

DKA-Austria (Dreikönigsaktion)

Dole Ecologie

DRL Synergies

Drums for Solar

Duncan Law

Earth’s Keeper, Inc. U.S.A.

e-CAN (Ecology and Climate Action Network) – Asia

E-CHANGER – Suisse

Ecologista en Accion – Federacion de Malaga

Ecologistas en Acción

Ecologistas en Accion Palencia

Ecology Collective, Turkey

Econexus

Ecoportal.Net

Ecosalud- Argentina

Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance

Eine Welt Initiative Korbach

Ekta Mahila Manch

Elevages sans frontières

Elkar Sarea Euskal Herria

Elkar Truke – Bidezko Merkataritza, Comercio Justo, Commerce Equitable

Emerald Green

Enda America Latina – Colombia

ENDA Pronat

ENDA-Europe

Entraide et Fraternité – Belgium

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth – Nigeria

Equal In Rights

EquityBD (Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh)

ESAFF (East and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum)

Escuela Agroecologica Naturaleza y Vida, Uruguay

ESSF (Europe Solidaire sans Frontières)

Eurafrica

Europe Solidaires Sans Frontières

European coordination Via Campesina

FADEAR

Fahamu – Network for Social Justice

Fair Food (Nashville)

Family Farm Defenders

FAN (Food Action Nepal)

FAP Cameroun (Forest and Agro Forestry Promoters)

FDCL (Forshungs und dokumentationszentrum Chile-Lanteinamerika)

Federació d’Ecologistes de Catalunya

Federación de Comités de Solidaridad con África negra „UMOYA’’

Fédération Nationale « Accueil Paysan »

Fédération Nature & Progrès

Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa

Femme et Société

FEMNET (African Women’s Development & Communication Network)

FEMUCARINAP (Federacion National de Mujeres Campesinas, Artesanas, Indigenas, Nativas y Asalariadas des Peru)

FENOP (Fédération Nationale des Organisations paysannes) – Burkina Faso

FIAN (FoodFirst Information & Action Network) International

FIAN Austria

FIAN Belgium

FIAN Burkina

FIAN Ecuador

FIAN France

FIAN Germany

FIAN International

FIAN Mexico

FIAN Netherlands

FIAN Sweden

Fiantso Madagascar

FIMARC (Fédération Internationale des Mouvements d’Adultes Ruraux Catholiques)

Focus one the Global South

FOCUSPULLER – Italy

FoE Timor-Leste (Haburas Foundation)

Fondation pour les Femmes Africaines (Congo – France)

Fondation pour les Femmes Africaines (Congo-France)

Fondazione diritti genetici

Food Connect Foundation

Food Secure Canada

FoodFreedom.wordpress.com

Foro Ecologico del Peru

Forum Civique Européen

Foundation HELP

Frenproca (Frente Progresista Caletero)

Frères des Hommes Belgique

Friends of the Earth – Cyprus

Friends of the Earth Adelaide

Friends of the Earth International

Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (Québec, Canada)

Fundacion Caosmosis

Fundacion Casa Tres Patios

Fundacion Concern Universal- Colombia

Fundacion FUNECOROCLES

Fundacion La Iluminacion

Fundacion Tropico, Colombia

GADECE

Gaia Foundation, Hungary

Gamin de l’art rue

Gandhi International

Genre en action

GIET

Global Initiative for Economic ; Social and Cultural Rights

Global Justice Ecology Project

GMWatch

GPDN (Guatemala Peace and Devlopment Network) – Red por la Paz y el Desarrollo de Guatemala

GRAIN

GRAPR (Groupement de Réflexion et d’Appui pour la Promotion Rurale) – RD Congo

Grassroots International

GRDR – Migrations, Citoyenneté, Développement

GreenPeace Africa

GRET France

Groupe de recherche en intérêt public de l’UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Groupe Ecosocialiste de Solidarités Suisse

Grupo Semillas, Colombia

Haburas Foundation

Hecho en Bs As / empresa social

HEDA (Human and Environmental Devlopment Agenda)

Hijas de la Luna, Argentina

Housing and Land Rights Network, Habitat International Coalition (Cairo, Egypt)

I.P.A. Manning

ICCO Great lacs office-Bukavu/DRC

ICID (Iniciativas de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarrollo) – Spain

IDEMACH (Asociacion Instituto de Desarrollo y Manejo de las Cuencas Hidricas)

IHCS (Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice)

IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development)

IMU (Irish Missionary Union)

INADES-Formation Côte-d’Ivoire

INADES-Formation International

INADES-Formation Togo

INADES-Formation / GIZ (Antenne d’Atakpamé)

Indicep (Instituto de investigacion cultural para educacion popular)

Informationsstelle Peru e.V. (Freiburg/Alemania)

Ingalan Bro An Alre (pays d’Auray)

Ingenieria sin Fronteras Navarra

Iniciativa contra lo Agronegocios

INKOTA-netzwerk

INSAF (Indian Social Action Forum)

Institute for Sustainable Development

Institute for Sustainable Development, Slovenia

Instytut Globalnej Odpowiedzialnosci

Intermondes

International Alliance of Inhabitants

IPANI

IRPAD (Institut de Recherche et de Promotion des Alternatives en Développement) – Afrique

ISADO, Magura

Itireleng Development and Educational Project

JAA (Jeunesse Africaine Agricole)

JASuL (Joint Action for Sustainable Livelihood) – Tamilnadu

JEURAC (Jeunesse Rurale Active)

Jubilee South Global Debt Network

Jubileo Sur/Americas

Jubileu Sul – Brasil

Juristes Solidarité

Justicia Global (Brasil)

KAIROS Europe

Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN)

KEPA

Kolectivo El Rebelde

Kooperation Brasilien

L’Autre Syndicat

La Casa Nicaragua

La Gabbianella Onlus

La Paix en marche

La Verde s.c.a.

La Via Campesina

LAND (Life Association for National Development)

Le Début des Haricots asbl

Le Monde selon les femmes

Le retour à la terre

League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development

LEAT (Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team)

Lembaga Informasi Perburuhan Sedane I Sedane Labour Resource Center

Les Amis de la Terre – Belgique

Les Amis de la Terre – France

Les Amis de la Terre – Togo

Les Jardins de Cocagne

Lessines-Afrique asbl

Les Trois Pierres

Les vents sauvages

Let’s Go Farm

Liga Comunistilor din Romania

Ligue des Consommateurs camerounais

Lok Sanjh Foundation

Lorenzo Muelas Hurtado – Resguardo de Guambia

LVIA

M.A.I.S. Ong

MAIZ Tabasco (Movimiento Agrarista Indigena Zapatista), Mexico

MANI TESE, Italy

Marche Mondiale des Femmes/World March of Women

Medical Mission Sisters

MELCA-Ethiopia

Mesa Ambiental Region Pacifico

MIJARC (Mouvement International de la Jeunesse Agricole)

MMC Brasil (Movimiento de Mulheres Camponesas)

MNLE – Réseau Homme & Nature

Mocafor Movimiento Campesino de Formosa

MOPAR (Movimiento Popular Oscar Arnulfo Romero)

Moringa Tree Foundation

Mouvement d’Action Paysanne, Belgium

Movimiento Mesoamericano de Permacultura

MST Brasil (Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra)

MTML (Mesa de Trabajo sobre Migraciones Laborales)/Ecuador

Mupo Foundation

National Campaign Committee for Rural Workers – India

National Farmers Platform The Gambia

National Farmers Union (Canada)

Nature Tropicale ONG – Benin

Naturland

Network for Social Justice and Human Rights

Network Institute for Global Democratisation

Netzwerk Afrika Deutschland

NFFPFW (National Forum for Forest-People and Forest People)

Niger Delta UPR Coalition

NOAH – Friends of the Earth Denmark

NOUMINREN (Japan Family Farmers Movement)

No-Vox Network

NOW (Network on Women Farmers

Observatori del Deute en la Globalitzacio

Observatorio de la Deuda en la Globalización

Observatorio Sociolaboral y del Diálogo Social en el Ecuador

OBV-Via Campesina Austria

Ohole Ambassadors (Namibie)

OLT (Organizacion de Lucha por la Tierra)

ONAI (Organizacion Nacional de Aborigenes Independiente)

ONG AFRICANDO

ONG AZHAR KIDAL

ONG CARAF (Collectif africain de recherche-action-formation) – Sénégal

ONG CLUCOD (Club Universitaire Unesco pour la lutte contre la drogue, le VIH/Sida, le tabagisme et les autres pandémies)

ONG EFA

ONG Harmonie Planétaire

ONG Jeunesse Agricole Africaine

Organizacion campesina movimiento huasteco democratico a.c.

Organizacion Fraternal Negra Hondureña

Otros Mundos AC/Chiapas – Amigos de la Tierra Mexico

Oxfam International

PACM (Pan-Africanist Community Movement of Sierra Leone)

Pakistan Dehqan Assembly

Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (Peasants coordination committee)

Panier bio de la vallée

PAPDA (Plateforme Haïtienne pour un Développement Alternatif) – Haïti

Parque Reserva Cerro de La Conejera

Pastoral Social Benjamin Aceval Paraguay

Pax Romana ICMICA

Paz Núñez

PELUM – Kenya

PELUM Association Regional Desk

People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty

Pesticide Action Network Germany

Peuples Solidaires en association avec ActionAid

Phagma Drolma – Asociacion para la Solidaridad con el Pueblo Tibetano

PIDHDD (Plataforma Interamericana de DDHD, democracia y desarrollo)

PLANT (Partners for Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples)

Plataforma Boliviana Frente al Cambio Climatico

Plataforma Rural

Plateforme Paysanne du Niger

Plateforme pour une agriculture socialement durable – Suisse

Poder Estudiantil Popular

Prensa Indigena Organizacion

Prensa Indígena.Org (México)

Presentation Justice Network

Pro Comunidades Indigenas (PY)

Purpose Group International

Quimet Colom Toldrà

RADEM (Recherche et Action pour un Développement Multi-sectoriel)

Rainforest Action Network

RAINS (Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems)

RAPDA (Réseau africain pour le droit à l’alimentation) Togo

RAPDA (Réseau Africain pour le Droit à l’Alimentation) – Burkina Faso

RAPDA (Réseau Africain pour le Droit à l’Alimentation) – Côte-d’Ivoire

Red Andalazu de Semillas

Red de Coordinacion en Biodiversidad

Red de Semillas

Red Latina sin fronteras

Red Latinoamericana sobre Deuda Desarrollo y Derechos

Redaktion Materialien

REDES-Amigos de la Tierra Uruguay 1280.

RELUFA (Réseau de Lutte Contre la Faim) – Cameroun

Réseau Plaidoyer et Lobbying – Mali

Retorno a la Tierra Costa Rica

RFA Uganda (The Rights to Food Alliance)

RMALC (Red Mexicana de Accion frente al Libre Comercio)

RSS (Rural Reconstruction society)

Saeed Baloch Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum

Sajogyo Institute-Bogor

School for Wellbeing Studies and Research

SEBA group-uganda

Secours Catholique – Caritas France

Secretria de Ambiente, Recursos Naturales y Sociedad de la Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos

Semences Poétiques

SERPAJ AL (Servicio Paz y Justicia en America Latina)

SIEMBRA, A.C

Sierra Leone Network on The Right to Food

SIF (Solidarité des Intervenants sur le Foncier)

Sindicato de Obreros des Campo

SLFA (Sustainable Livelihood Farmers Association) – Tamilnadu

Slow food Mar des Plata

SNAPRICC-CI (Syndicat nationale des producteurs individuels de café et cacao en Côte-d’Ivoire)

Society for Threatened Peoples

SOCODEL

Solar Fire

Solidaires-CADTM (Comité d’Annulation de la dette du Tiers Monde) – Pointe-Noire, Congo Brazzaville

Solidaridad Suecia America latina SAL

solidariedade imigrante

Solidariedade Imigrante

Solidarité

Solidarité Mondiale contre la Faim

Sortir du colonialisme

SOS Faim Belgique

SPP (Surplus People Project)

Stichting Graal Nederland

SÜDWIND, Austria

Sundarban Banadhikar Sangram Committee

Survie

Sustainable Development Institute, Liberia

Synergie Paysanne

TCOE (Trust for Community Outreach and Education)

Technology for Life NGO

Terra de Direitos – OSC

Terra Nuova

Terre de Liens

Terre des Hommes France

Territorio ( grupo de estudio sobre cuestion agraria, uso y tenencia de la tierra en Colombia – Universidad de Antioquia)

TESCOD- Ghana

The Big Carrot Natural Food Market

The Global Native

The National Right to food Network

the National Right to Food Network MALAWI

The Oakland Institute

The Social Justice Committee of Montreal

Timberwatch Coalition

Transnational Institute

Tzuk Kim-pop

UACDDDD (Union des associations et des coordinations d’association pour le développement et la défense des droits des démunis)

UFFCA (Uganda Fisheries and Fish Conservation Association)

UK Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

UNAM Oaxaca

UNES (Unidad Ecologica Salvadora)

Union Paysanne (Québec)

Union Solidaria de Comunidades Diaguita Cacano

Uniterre

USMEFAN (United Small and Medium scale Farmers’ Association of Nigeria)

Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty

Veterinarios Sin Fronteras

Via Organica

Village Technology Trust (Solomon Islands)

WAC (Women’s Action for Change)

Wamusiru Mundaka of When Rains Fail (WHRAF)

WGWG (Women for Green Way for Generation)

WHY Hunger

WILPF Italia (Women International League for Peace and Freedom)

WILPF Netherland

Women’s Food and Water Initiative (Vancouver Island)

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

World Forum For Alternatives/Forum Mondial des Alternatives

World Forum of Fish Harvesters & Fish workers

World Rainforest Movement

Xarxa de Consum Solidari

Youth of Development Fund – Spire

Zi Teng (sex workers concern group, Hong Kong)

–
La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790, Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

—

Press Release

April 17: More than one hundred actions in the world to support peasant agriculture

(Jakarta, April 16, 2011) – Tomorrow, April 17, the world will celebrate the International Day of Peasant Struggle. More than one hundred different events are taking place (See full list here) in every corner of the world, in capitals cities, towns and small villages, in defence of peasant agriculture and food sovereignty. This date commemorates the 1996 assassination in Eldorado dos Carajás, Brazil, of 19 innocent peasants who were struggling for land and defending peasant and small farmer food production.

This year we reaffirm the need to get rid of the corporate food system, and our belief that peasant agriculture can feed the world. The current food crisis shows that the dominant corporate food system has failed and that the promises of the 1996 World Food Summit, echoed by the Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by 2015, will not be fulfilled. On the contrary, the number of hungry has increased from 800 million in 1996 to more then 1,000 million at the moment.

The day will be celebrated in many different ways. A wide variety of groups, activists, communities, media and organizations from every continent have organized direct actions, cultural activities, workshops, film screenings, radio programmes, debates on Food Sovereignty and rallies.

One of the important actions will be the publication of an international statement against land grabbing, at the occasion of the World Bank meeting in Washington DC.

In Brussels, a large „Free Our Seeds“ action will gather many participants, who will exchange the seeds and experience gained from their gardens and farms. It is a simple way to invigorate forgotten diversity and reaffirm the value of seeds for our food and culture.

In Brazil, the La Via Campesina member MST is organizing a seminar called “Eldorado dos Carajás, 15 years of impunity”, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the massacre. In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, around 600 people from organizations member of La Via Campesina will march to demand their right to land in the context of the International Day of Peasant Struggle.

In Korea, the Korean Peasant League and Korea Women Peasant Association, together with 25 other farmers’ organizations, organized two mobilizations this week. The first was in favour of the reform of agricultural cooperative bank law, and the second to stop the KOR-US and KOR-EU Free Trade Agreements, and demand compensation for farmers affected by the foot and mouth disease, as well as the protection of peasant rights. More than one thousand five hundreds farmers got together from all over the nation.
Watch videos on April 17:

1. LVC video on 17th April: International Day of Peasant Struggle
2. Dia de la Lucha Campesina – 17 de Abril

English

Via Campesina video on 17th of April, International Day of peasant struggle

Via Campesina spokespersons for interviews:

Paul Nicholson – Spain (Spanish, English and French), phone: +34636451566

Itelvina Masioli – Brazil (Spanish and Portuguese), phone: +551195189275

Renaldo Chingore João – Mozambique (Portuguese), phone: +258824507340

Josie Riffaud – France (French), phone: +336105291

More on http://www.viacampesina.org

—

31 03 2011
News from Noumiren, La Via Campesina member in Japan
(Keep up to date with the  Noumiren blog : http://earlybirds.ddo.jp/earlybirds/saigai/?lang=en)

« I do not think that I can farm this year, but with the members of local NOUMINREN, we will take one step after another to make a come back of our agriculture in our village! Your support is inspiring us to live through this crisis. » Miura san, member of NOUMINREN Hamadoori in Fukushima.

It has been 2 weeks since the huge earthquake and tsunami stroke Japan. 10,102 people (Mar 25th) have lost their life, and still 17,053 people are missing. Moreover, about 250,000 evacuated people who lost their houses are still in the shelters.

●Update information on disaster relief in Fukushima Prefecture

The Disaster relief team of NOUMINREN Fukushima has established a food dispensary with a variety of food donated by NOUMINREN members from both Fukushima and other branches. Soup was prepared to distribute to the refugees who had not eaten warm food since March 11th, the day the disaster struck. In days following the disaster, 15 elderly persons have already died in Fukushima and Iwate Prefectures from exposure to cold weather and food shortage. Beside this, due to the accident of the nuclear power plants, radioactivity that is over the regulated limit was detected in the some vegetables and milk of Fukushima, Ibaragi, Chiba, Tochigi, and Gunma prefectures. The government called on the prefectures to voluntarily refrain from shipping theses produces. Not only the producers are concerned but all Japanese consumers are worried.

●Iwate Prefecture & Miyagi Prefecture – areas severely hit by the earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent continuous aftershocks. 5000 persons already died. The disaster relief team of NOUMINREN Iwate is preparing to receive relief supplies coming from the rest of the country, while encouraging their members to assist.  They also recently procured a storage area for these supplies near the NOUMINREN Iwate local office.

Miyagi Prefecture : Rice fields submerged 1 meter at deepest. NOUMIREN Miyagi is now coordinating with NOUMINREN Yamagata on disaster relief. A large amount of gas for transportation was bought to make transport possible again. NOUMINREN members were asked to offer their crops as well as other necessities. Water service and other public utilities are not recovered yet in the area.

For the chairman of Noumiren, “in order to reconstruct our life and agriculture, not only the support of the government is essential, but also our long term support is essential”.

On March 24th, NOUMINREN made five demands to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. These included (1) supporting the affected farmers, (2) compensating the farmers affected by the radioactive accident (dairy farmers, crops that could not be shipped, and financial damages caused by misinformation), (3) ensuring the distribution and safety of rice and food, 4) Reconsider the reduction of rice acreage policy, and revive farmlands to urgently increase the production (as just the farmlands that were damaged by saltwater count over 20,000 acres. 5) Counter the shortage of rice through distributing the reserved rice.

On the second point, the government along with Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) answered that they will compensate the damages according to the law on compensation for nuclear damage. Any misinformation related to the accident will be compensated. Dairy farmers as well.

As not all shipping companies lowered their fees for shipping relief supplies, to send some food supplies like rice and plum pickles from Fukui pref to Fukushima pref. NOUMIREN faces very high shipping fees. The farmers have therefore asked the government to cover some of these transportation fees.

To check the level of radioactivity of the goods, Noumiren is trying to purchase a radioactive dosimeter and have asked La Via Campesina to help them to find on as in Japan the dosimeter are not available any more.

You can still send your support through :
NAME              : Nouminundozenkokurengoukai
CONTACT NO   : 81-3-3590-6759
BANK               : MIZUHO BANK LTD.
BRANCH          : IKEBUKURO NISHIGUCHI BRANCH
ADDRESS         : 1-15-2 NISHI IKEBUKURO, TOSHIMA-KU,TOKYO
ACCOUNT NO : 229 1775644
SWIFTCODE     : MHBKJPJT

OR
Directly to La Via Campesina website http://www.viacampesina.org and click the DONATE button.

—
La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

—
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—

Combat Monsanto >

—

Press Release – La Via Campesina

La Via Campesina’s Message to the Seed Treaty: Farmers in Resistance to Defend their Right to Peasant Seeds

From 14-18 March 2011, La Via Campesina delegates from Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, France, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Madagascar, and South Korea are participating in the Fourth Regular Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, also known as the Seed Treaty. We are here to present the voice of peasant seed producers around the world.
The Treaty has accomplished most of its mission to facilitate the industry’s access to seeds. But to date it has not implemented Farmers’ Rights and only proposes an illusory financing through ‘benefit sharing’, a fund made up from the proceeds of patents issuing from genetic resources facilitated by the Treaty. However we refuse this ‘benefit sharing’, as we do not recognize the industry’s continued theft and privatization of our seeds.
During the past week, we have met in Bali to evaluate among our organizations the situation of farmers on the issue of seeds and to strengthen our own seed networks. Our members shared experiences showing that industrial seeds are causing them serious harm, including the criminalization of those farmers who contribute to the preservation of cultivated diversity by carrying out farmers’ selection. The industrial property rights that are recognized by the Treaty in accordance with WTO intellectual property rules have seriously penalized farmers who inadvertently use patented seeds. But patents are not the only problem; within the UPOV system farmers have to pay royalties each time they reuse commercial seeds on their farm.
The predominance of industrial seeds has led to many other problems that affect the lives, environment and health of farmers. Industrial seeds are a bred in such a way that they cannot grow without chemical inputs. Their diversity has been made homogenous thus more susceptible to pests and unable to adapt to different environments and our changing climate. These seeds also decrease global food diversification.
In this process, thousands of local varieties have been lost, while farmers have become dependent on industrial seeds and inputs. “There has been a rapid concentration in the seed industry and today, the top three seed companies control 53 per cent of global commercial seed sales,” said Titis Priyowidodo, an Indonesian representative of La Via Campesina, as he addressed the Governing Body this morning. “While all 127 signatory states actively recognize breeders’ rights and have gone a long way to facilitate the industry’s access to seeds, they have done nothing to implement the Farmers’ Rights that they ratified,” later commented Basawareddy, a representative of the Karnataka Farmers’ Union of India.
For these reasons, La Via Campesina, which represents 150 farmers’ organizations in 70 different countries, insists that Treaty states immediately implement Farmers Rights. This should be done both in terms of legislation as well as through the direct financing of in situ reproduction in farmers’ fields under the direct control of farmers’ organizations. We also demand access to all the seed collections in the multilateral system, as these collections hold the very seeds that have been taken from our fields.
If states do not rectify this situation, we will stop collaborating with the Treaty. One way or the other, we will continue to develop, breed, and exchange our local seeds for the future of humanity and of our planet.

Salam,

Mohammad Iqbal
——————————————————
La Via Campesina
http://www.viacampesina.org
International Peasant Movement
Jl. Mampang Prapatan XIV No.5 Jakarta Selatan 12790

m: +62.812 239 789 6
Skype: mikkel.demon
e: ikez@viacampesina.org

—

01 02 2011
Español abajo – Français ci-dessous
____________________________________________________________
EN

The Number 2 of the Nyeleni Newsletter is now available online in three languages: English, Spanish and French!
This edition of the newsletter has a special on factory farming.

Industrialized food production: the base of the junk food system
There is no more potent symbol of the almost absolute control wielded by the international agri-food system (from landgrabbing to retailing), than the factory farm.  These industrial complexes cause extensive pollution and disease in entire regions and emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases, all in order to produce food destined for the poor: “cheap” meat of dubious quality, whose true costs are never measured. This system is imposed on us, on humanity, and represent in one crisis the sum of multiple crises. In the almost endless list of calamities caused by factory farms, the genetically modified soy bean monoculture – farmed with pesticides and then used to feed imprisoned animals – means that everything returns to the same pockets at a harsh cost to the planet. However, the people are organizing and having more and more conversations and debates in an attempt to comprehend this together. This is very subversive, because our collective memory, and continuing to produce our own foodstuffs, according to our own peasant traditions, represents essentially the most fundamental basis for our autonomy – allowing our peoples, with all our ways and wisdom, to persist, and even to cool the earth, and attain lives of justice and dignity in the present and into the future.
GRAIN

The Newsletter is published every two months on the http://www.nyeleni.org website. To read the Newsletter in English please click here.

Each newsletter comes with an additional document – a list of reports and more references that can be downloaded from the same website.Next edition on biodiversity and farmers seeds! Send your contributions by the 12th of February.

For any further information, please contact info@nyeleni.org
Please circulate it to your contacts!

____________________________________________________________
ES

¡El Número 2 del boletín Nyeleni está disponible en línea en tres idiomas: Inglés, Español y Francés!
Este número del boletín contiene una edición especial sobre la cría intensiva de ganado.

Ganadería industrial: la base del sistema de comida basura
No hay símbolo más contundente del control casi absoluto que ejerce el sistema agroalimentario mundial (del acaparamiento de tierras a la venta al menudeo de alimentos carísimos), que los criaderos industriales que provocan extensa contaminación y epidemias generalizables en regiones enteras —y una altísima emisión de gases con efecto de invernadero—, por producir la comida que le destinan a los pobres: aglutinado de carnes “baratas”, de muy dudosa calidad, cuyos costos en realidad ni se contabilizan. Fueron impuestos a la humanidad sumiéndonos en esta crisis de varias crisis. En la abultada cuenta de calamidades de los criaderos industriales, el monocultivo de soya transgénica con agrotóxicos para alimentar a los animales encarcelados promueve que todo vuelva a los mismos bolsillos a costa del planeta. Pero los pueblos abrimos más y más espacios para intentar entender juntos. Eso es muy subversivo. Porque en la longevidad de la memoria, producir nuestros propios alimentos, a nuestros modos campesinos, termina siendo nuestra autonomía más primordial, desde donde los pueblos con nuestros modos y saberes permaneceremos, y tal vez consigamos enfriar el planeta, alcanzar la justicia y una vida digna del futuro.
GRAIN

El Boletín se publica cada dos meses en la página web http://www.nyeleni.org. Para leer el boletín de noticias en Español, por favor haga clic aquí. Cada boletín incluye un documento adicional – una lista de informes y más referencias que se puede descargar desde la misma página web.¡Próxima edición será sobre biodiversidad y semillas campesinas! ¡Envía tus contribuciones hasta el 12 de febrero!

Para más información, póngase en contacto con info@nyeleni.org
¡Por favor, difundir a sus contactos!

____________________________________________________________
FR

Le Numéro 2 du Bulletin Nyéléni est maintenant disponible en ligne en trois langues: anglais, espagnol et français!
Cette publication contient une édition spéciale sur l’élevage intensif.

L’élevage industriel à la base de la mal-bouffe mondiale
Il n’y a pas de symbole plus puissant du contrôle absolu exercé par le système agro-alimentaire international (depuis l’accaparement des terres jusqu’à la distribution et la vente au détail), que l’élevage intensif. Ces complexes industriels génèrent une importante pollution et provoquent des maladies dans des régions entières, tout en émettant d’énormes quantités de gaz à effet de serre – tout cela essentiellement afin de produire des aliments destinés aux pauvres: de la viande “bon marché” à la qualité douteuse et dont le coût réel n’est jamais mesuré. Ce mode de production nous est imposé à nous, l’humanité – et englobe, en une seule et même crise, des crises multiples. Dans la liste presque sans fin des calamités engendrées par les élevages intensifs, la monoculture de soja génétiquement modifié – produit à grand renfort de pesticides et ensuite utilisé pour nourrir des animaux captifs dans des parcs industriels – est la garantie pour les grands groupes de l’agro-business de voir tout l’argent de la chaine revenir dans leurs poches, aux dépens des ressources de la planète. Cependant, les gens prennent de plus en plus conscience de ces question et des espaces se créent pour tenter de comprendre ensemble les enjeux de la situation. Ceci est très subversif, étant donne que, à travers notre mémoire collective, la production de notre propre alimentation, selon nos propres traditions paysannes, est l’essence même de la plus primordiale des autonomies – c’est à partir de ce point que nos peuples, avec tous nos moyens et toute notre sagesse, nous avancerons – et que nous parviendrons même à faire reculer le changement climatique, afin de parvenir à une vie de justice et de dignité pour l’avenir.
GRAIN

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La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

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Mehr zu Via Campesina in Cancun (Englisch) >

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14. Jänner 2011 08:02:39 MEZ

La Vía Campesina Declaration in Cancun

No to market-based business deals proposed by the governments of industrialized countries and transnational corporations, the thousands of solutions to the climate crisis are in the hands of the people

The members of La Vía Campesina, coming from 29 Mexican states and 36 countries from all over the world, and hundreds of national and international organizations, join our thousands of struggles in Cancun to demand of the United Nations Conference of the Parts on Climate Change, (COP 16), environmental justice and respect for Mother Earth; to denounce the ambitious attempts of governments – principally from the North – to commercialize all elements of life to benefit transnational corporations; and to get to know the thousands of solutions that the people have to cool the planet and stop the environmental devastation that today is seriously threatening humanity.

We denounce that governments continue to be indifferent in the face of the warming of the planet and instead of debating the necessary political changes to cool it, they debate over speculative financial business, the new green economy and the privatization of the commons.

The results of the official meeting, which took place between November 29th and the early morning of December 11th, are horrible news for peasant and working families, for all of humanity and for nature. Instead of confronting the climate crisis, the resolutions in Cancun will only worsen it, as they failed to establish binding agreements to reduce greenhouse gases and obligatory goals to reduce emissions; instead they strengthened carbon markets.

To promote these markets, they pushed forward different instruments such as the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) and the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) which we have denounced as false solutions. Through Clean Development Mechanisms, industrialized countries and multinationals can continue contaminating in their places of origin and still fulfill their emissions reduction goals through carbon certificates financing “clean development” projects in other places. CDM projects are also highly polluting and cause great environmental and social devastation, since projects such as large dams, methane recovery from industrial farming, massive dumps and plantations, etc. fall into that category. REDD inserts forests and agricultural land (if we are considering REDD plus) into the carbon market to benefit transnationals, and it poses a threat as the greatest land grab of all time. REDD means the privatization of forests, the expulsion of communities from their land and financial speculation.

A climate fund was also created, which will be administrated by the World Bank, although no money was promised (“mobilizing resources” is the only thing that has been discussed). This fund will not only be composed of public funds, but will also include private funds from transnational companies and transactions within the carbon markets.

A technology committee will be formed to facilitate the broad participation of transnationals and industry who will be able to impose their technologies without any type of environmental or social evaluation, and without questioning intellectual property or patents.

To summarize, the text that was agreed upon is a better-revised version of the Copenhagen agreement.

In Cancun, the business and nature speculation agenda triumphed, while they systematically threw out the demands that emerged from the World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, where some 35,000 participants from all over the world attended.

The agenda imposed in Cancun is that of the banks and investment funds, of the major gas, petroleum, carbon, electricity and automotive companies, of the agribusiness corporations and others who, as they propose to speculate on the climate and nature, are leading the whole world to the brink of a great catastrophe with irreversible effects.

The peasants of La Vía Campesina reject and disavow the results of Cancun, and we denounce and regret that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is quickly becoming a platform that legitimizes, broadens and creates the base for a new global economic order: Green Capitalism.

But in Cancun another meeting of social movements came together around the climate and systemic crises, and resistance struggles were strengthened and formed bonds. The mobilizations towards Cancun began in November 28th as a joint effort with La Vía Campesina and our allies the National Assembly of People Affected by the Environment, the National Liberation Movement and the Mexican Electricians Union, who organized three caravans that left from San Luis Potosi, Guadalajara and Acapulco and passed through some of the territories most emblematic of environmental devastation as well as the struggles and alternatives in these affected communities. Along these routes hundreds of towns and people opened their doors to us with generosity and solidarity. On November 30th we arrived in Mexico City with our caravans, we celebrated an International Forum and a march accompanied by thousands of people and hundreds of organizations that also struggle for social and environmental justice.

On our journey to Cancun other caravans, one from Chiapas, another from Oaxaca and one from Guatemala, after many long hours of traveling, met us in Merida to celebrate a ceremony at Chichen Itza and finally arrive in Cancun on December 3rd to install our camp for Life and Social and Environmental Justice, open our Forum and begin our week of struggle in Cancun. We hosted panels and conferences, workshops, assemblies, public demonstrations in city neighborhoods, meetings with our allies and a global action called “the thousands of Cancuns” which echoed across the planet and made it to the very rooms of the Moon Palace where the official meeting of the COP 16 was held. The march on December 7th united thousands of members of La Vía Campesina with our international and national allied organizations. Beyond manifesting our positions and demonstrating that we peasants are the ones cooling the planet, we backed the Bolivian and Tuvalu governments who are committed to the rights of Mother Earth.

As Vía Campesina we demand:

Resume the principles of the Peoples’ Accord in Cochabamba.
Establish a binding agreement to reduce by 50 percent greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized countries by 2017.
Allocate 6% of developed countries’ GDP to finance actions against the Climate Crisis in countries of the global south.
Total respect for Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Rights of Climate Migrants.
The formation of an International Tribunal for Climate Justice.
State policies to promote and strengthen sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty.

From la Vía Campesina we make a call to assume collective responsibility for Mother Earth, proposing for ourselves to change production and consumption patterns that have provoked the crisis on this planet; to defend the commons and stop their privatization; to redouble efforts, to work intensively to inform, educate, organize and articulate to build a social force that can stop the tendency to convert the grave problems of the climate crisis into business opportunities and that can promote the thousands of peoples’ solutions; to revise and construct new spaces for international alliances; to prepare ourselves for the global referendum for the rights of Mother Earth and the real alternatives to the Climate Crisis; to prepare the second World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth; to promote the “thousands of Durban” and to arrive in 2012, at the Rio Summit plus 20, with a growing force.

No more harm to our Mother Earth!
No more destruction of the planet!
No more evictions from our territories!
No more death to the sons and daughters of Mother Earth!
No more criminalization of our struggles!
No to the Copenhagen agreement. Yes to the Cochabamba principles!

EARTH CANNOT BE SOLD, IT IS RECOVERED AND DEFENDED!
PEASANTS ARE COOLING THE PLANET!
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALIZE THE HOPE!

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La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

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La Via Campesina Organizes International Caravans for Life, Resistance, and Environmental Justice in Mexico

22 October, 2010

Mexico

Over a thousand women and men, farmers, indigenous people, urban and rural people affected by social and environmental destruction are planning to march in 5 caravans towards Cancun, Mexico, in protest against the indolence of the dominant countries and capitalists of the world gathering for the conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change from November 29 to December 10, 2010.

The caravans co-organised by the National Assembly of People Affected by the Environment and the international peasant’s movement La Via Campesina and by a convergence of diverse social movements from the United States, Canada and Mexico will kick off in San Luis Potosi, Guadalajara, and Acapulco, joining other rural, urban and student movements in Mexico City on November 30 for a mass protest for environmental and social justice . Two other caravans will then depart from Oaxaca and Chiapas, all converging to Cancun on December 3 for the inauguration of the Farmers’s and Indigenous Camp organized by La Via Campesina.

The caravans‘ journeys will bring local struggles against social and environmental injustices into the limelight as the global community convenes for the climate negotiations in Cancun. They will denounce the widespread apathy in the face of the current socio-environmental scandals, as well as the Mexican government’s maneuvering to implement mega-projects for “Clean Development Mechanisms (MDL)” which in fact devastate communities and the environment. This is the case of the large industrial pig farms such as Smithfield, the production of agrofuels for airplanes, the  „semi- remediation“ of open air garbage dumps, large hydro-dams and new GMO extensions.

In solidarity with this movement against corporate greed in the name of “climate change”, Via Campesina farmers from around the world and other activists will join the caravans. According to Henry Saragih, general coordinator of La Via Campesina, “leaders from Asia will also march with the affected people of Mexico and North America. In my country Indonesia, people also lead hundreds even thousands of struggles, at local level, against commercial projects destroying people livelihoods and the environment”.

Josie Riffaud, a Via Campesina farmer leader from France also insisted that “the solutions being discussed in the climate talks are very scary. We are being told that some projects will help solve the current climate chaos, but it is an illusion. We are seeing an increase of monoculture plantations, genetic engeneering, agrofuels plantations, landgrabbing, all of this will further increase devastation and exclusion”.

In Cancun, La Via Campesina and its allies will organise an “Alternative Global Forum for Life and Environmental and Social Justice”, on December 5 through 8, and a mass mobilisation of peasants, indigenous and social movements on December 7. At the same time, in Cancun and around the world, thousands of people and organisation will mobilise creating „thousands of Cancuns“ to denounce the false solutions against climate change and to promote a real system change.

Contactos:

Alberto Gomez +52 5555843471

Carlos Marentes +1 9158738933

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International Operational Secretariat

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La Via Campesina – International Secretariat:

Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV No. 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790,  Indonesia

Phone : +62-21-7991890, Fax : +62-21-7993426

E-mail: viacampesina@viacampesina.org ; Website: http://www.viacampesina.org

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Subscribe to Via Campesina News Updates! (Go to www.viacampesina.org and subscribe on line)
¡Suscribe a la lista de información de La Vía Campesina! (Suscribe en línea en http://viacampesina.org/main_sp/)
Inscrivez-vous à la liste d’information de Via Campesina! (Inscrivez-vous en ligne sur http://viacampesina.org/main_fr/)

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SUPPORT THE PRESENCE OF La Vía Campesina AT THE CLIMATE SUMMIT IN CANCUN 2010

HELP THOUSANDS OF PEASANTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD

We are peasants, family farmers and indigenous peoples from Mexico and the world.

*       Our sustainable farming practices cool the planet

*       We defend the Mother Earth

*       Help us say NO to false solutions to climate change!

We ask to you support a massive presence of peasants, family farmers and indigenous peoples from Mexico and the world at the Climate Change Summit (COP-16) to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10, 2010.

Make a secure on-line credit card donation now from any country by clicking on: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589 [Especially if you need your contribution to be tax exempt in the USA].

If you prefer to use PayPal, and/or you not need a tax exemption in the USA, then click on: http://viacampesinanorteamerica.org/en/donate/donate.php

For more information: http://viacampesinanorteamerica.org/en/index.php

La Vía Campesina is the global movement of organizations of peasants, family farmers, indigenous peoples, farm workers, the landless, rural women and rural youth. We are an autonomous, plural, multicultural, independent movement without political, economic, or any other type of affiliation. The organizations that form La Vía Campesina come from 69 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and the American continent.

We farmers are also victims of Global Warming and Climate Change:

• The rains don’t come as they did before, which has altered our traditional production cycles.
• There are more and more devastating extreme climate events, like hurricanes, cyclones, and monsoons that destroy our farms, and ever more severe droughts that kill our crops while our animals die from lack of water.
• There are more and more devastating extreme climate events, like hurricanes, cyclones, and monsoons that destroy our farms, and ever more severe droughts that kill our crops while our animals die from lack of water.
• In no case have the bad governments or the corporations responded adequately to the mounting losses we are suffering, nor do they take responsibility for the wounds they are inflicting on the Mother Earth and our climate.
• We fight against the False Solutions to climate change promoted by transnational corporations and governments:
• Carbon credits and trading mechanisms are really just privatizing our atmosphere and climate. They allow polluters of the atmosphere to keep polluting, and are leading to massive land grabs and mass evictions of peasant communities so that giant corporations can „cultivate climate credits“ in the form of environmentally disastrous monoculture plantations of Eucalyptus, etc., that are really Green Deserts.
• Agrofuels are another lie that allows corporate criminals to highjack public coffers to plant industrial monocultures – many times with GMOs – and evict peasants and family farmers from our lands – while they do not significantly moderate climate effects.

Among the primary CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING is the industrial food system:

• La Industrial agriculture is responsible for 11 to 15%
• Deforestation causes 15 to 18% additionally
• The processing, packaging and transport of food provoke 15 to 20%
• The decomposition of organic garbage: 3 to 4%
• In sum, the industrial food system generated between 44 and 57% of global greenhouse gas emissions

Sustainable peasant, family farm and indigenous farming actually cools the planet:

• We produce for local food systems, with agroecological methods that avoid fossil fuel consumption.
• A Food Sovereignty based on local production of healthy food by peasants and family farmers is the best way to deal with the Climate Crisis and the Food Crisis
• FOOD SOVEREIGNTY COOLS THE PLANET

OUR VOICES MUST BE HEARD IN CANCUN

• At the last Climate Summit, in Copenhagen, our voices were excluded, and we had to take to the streets to be heard.
• The UN has refused to include the results of Cochabamba Forum in the agenda for Cancun.
• We must take to the streets again in Cancun, this time in larger than ever numbers, with our allies and friends from around the world, to make sure that the voices of reason are heard in Cancun and around the world.
• We will hold an ALTERNATIVE PEOPLES CLIMATE FORUM in the camp, open to the world.
• We need resources so that thousands of peasants and indigenous people, who earn less than USD 300 a year per family, can get to Cancun and be heard. This is a life and death struggle for us.
• We need support for buses, tents, latrines, drinking water, outdoor cooking facilities, corn, beans and rice, a health post, sound equipment, a generator, etc.
• If you cannot be in Cancún yourself, with your support WE CAN BE YOUR VOICE.

PLEASE HELP US NOW

Make a secure on-line credit card donation now by clicking on: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589 [Especially if you need your contribution to be tax exempt in the USA].

If you prefer to use PayPal, and/or you not need a tax exemption in the USA, then click on: http://viacampesinanorteamerica.org/en/donate/donate.php

For more information: http://viacampesinanorteamerica.org/en/index.php

—

International Operational Secretariat

———————————————————————–

La Via Campesina – International Secretariat:

Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV No. 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790,  Indonesia

Phone : +62-21-7991890, Fax : +62-21-7993426

E-mail: viacampesina@viacampesina.org ; Website: http://www.viacampesina.org

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Subscribe to Via Campesina News Updates! (Go to www.viacampesina.org and subscribe on line)
¡Suscribe a la lista de información de La Vía Campesina! (Suscribe en línea en http://viacampesina.org/main_sp/)
Inscrivez-vous à la liste d’information de Via Campesina! (Inscrivez-vous en ligne sur http://viacampesina.org/main_fr/)