Newsletter no 5 – Editorial
Nyéléni Europe
As we follow the road to Krems, we advance towards people’s food sovereignty.
In Europe, more than a thousand farms, along with the people who make them possible, dissapear every day. The loss of cultivated biodiversity continues to increase. The best lands are falling into the hands of financial capital, which is also speculating with food and as a result food crises are rocketing. The European population is increasingly suspicious of a food system that regularly puts their health at risk… These are some of the serious consequences of a global food system based on an unsustainable neoliberal model, driven by transanacional companies and financial markets. Current European agricultural policies have been developed according to the doctrines of the World Trade Organization.
And, more importantly, the CAP has evolved from a mechanism to ensure food security on the continent to an instrument without political vocation, which leaves agricultural regulation at the mercy of pure neo-liberal competition, where multinationals always win and small farmers in Europe and in many other countries always lose. It is time for change, and it is time to fill the false democracy in which we live with politics. Food Sovereignty should be considered as the framework for agricultural policies in Europe and worldwide. Producers and small-scale producers, with their farming, despite what the agro-industry may say, are the only ones who can feed the people while preserving the richness of our planet for future generations. While political and economic interests persist in the wrong direction, throughout Europe, citizens are organising themselves to regain control of their food and agricultural systems: movements for the multiplication of seeds, anti-GMO organizations, young farmers reviving the countryside and productiondistribution-consumption cooperatives are among the many alternatives that are being built in Europe. The Nyeleni Forum 2011 will offer the possibility for a collective reflection on these emerging initiatives, and how we can work together more effectiviely. In Austria, we will strengthen the pillars on which we’re building the European movement for food sovereignty.
Javier Sanchez, ECVC and Steering Committee for Nyéléni Europe
