Newsletters Nyéléni in English

The international Nyéléni newsletter is the voice of the international movement for Food Sovereignty. Its main goal is to strengthen the grassroots of the movement, by providing accessible material on key issues and creating a space – for individuals and organisations involved in the struggle – to exchange their experiences and share information.

Newsletter 15 – Editorial

Newsletter no 15 - Smallholder agri-investments

Smallholder agri-investments

Illustration: Encouragement, Erika Hastings – mudspice.com

200,000 hectares of land given to multinational Louis Dreyfus in Côte d’Ivoire for rice export. 70 million pounds of UK taxpayer money to develop genetically modified crops. Privatization of seeds across continents. These are just a few
projects in the last years under the banner of ‘investing in agriculture’.

This is why social movements are gearing up for one of the biggest emerging battles over the future of food sovereignty – the corporatization of investment. The private sector portrays itself as the saviour of farming but as this newsletter shows it is small holders who are really investing in feeding people and building rural livelihoods. Being taken in by the story of the overriding importance of corporate investment means, for example, that ‘codes of conduct’ to continue land grabbing are being developed instead of regulations to stop it.

A closer look at Africa shows that corporate private investment is a strategy:
i) to sell more chemicals and seeds to African farmers, and

ii) to secure low cost access to land and resources for global supply chains that feed the rich – through controlling small holders. This will destroy the environment, kill genetic diversity and push thousands more into hunger.

In October the World Committee on Food Security (CFS) will meet to discuss principles for ‘Responsible investments in agriculture’. We must shout out the message that not all investment is the same. And ask important questions: Investment in what type of agriculture? By whom? For whose benefit? Colombian farmers have just succeeded in rolling back seed privatization by asking this. And as the Voices from the field show, small holders everywhere
are rising to the task.

Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth International

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Smallholder agri-investments, no 15

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Newsletter no 14 – Editorial

Newsletter no 14 - Rights and repression

Rights and repression

Eleven peasants and six policemen killed. 13 peasants prosecuted, and more than 50 incriminated in the course of one of the most violent land conflicts in Paraguay’s recent history. Fisherwomen, men and children who have been deprived of their access to Lake Victoria in Uganda are threatened with being shot by private security guards if they cross the borders established by investors who claim to have bought the lake. Female workers of big food retailers who are put under surveillance, sexually harassed at their workplace and underpaid in the U.S. Pastoralists who are trying to survive the consequences of the destruction of their habitat due to mining activities in Mongolia… These are but a few of the testimonies of human rights’ violations and abuses that this issue of the Nyéléni Newsletter has collected.

They all demonstrate the increasing criminalization of social movements defending food sovereignty all over the world. We can not know the true scope of this situation, as much abuse and many conflicts and human rights’ violations committed throughout the existing food systems remain invisible and go undetected. However even this sparse and scattered information has been enough for UN monitoring bodies and defenders – such as the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights – to state that the second most vulnerable group of human rights’ defenders are those working on land, natural resources and environmental issues. The International Labour Organization has also reported that the incidence of bonded and slave labour is particularly high in certain workplaces in the food chain – such as big plantations, industrial slaughterhouses and trawlers. The increasing criminalization of active practitioners within the food sovereignty movement is one of the major threats that we are currently facing. Depending on the context, the criminalization may be promoted by an authoritarian State that does not allow people to organize autonomously; or by the erosion of the institutions and human rights’ culture of countries that previously had a high degree of protection of human rights; or by non-State actors such as companies and the media who promote laws that impair or make the economic activities of pastoralists, fishing communities, peasants and gatherers illegal; or deprive these groups of access to natural resources; or dismantle labour rights’ protection, and environmental and sanitary regulations.

Our movements and organizations need to develop and improve their strategies to face the threat of increasing criminalization. This Newsletter collects some of our experiences and current strategic initiatives in this regard: We recall how the struggle of Indigenous Peoples for the recognition of their collective rights to their lands and territories, to their traditional knowledge, to free, prior and informed consent and to a self-determined economic, social and cultural development in international and national law has proven to be a forerunner of the food sovereignty movement. Other rural constituencies such as peasants and fishing communities are also reclaiming the recognition of their distinctive rights to natural resources, and to self-determination of their own food systems and economic activities. The current process of drafting a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural
areas and the FAO Guidelines on Small-Scale Fisheries are two initiatives aimed at empowering peasants and fishers, and building legal frameworks that support smallscale food producers and public welfare.

We also need to deepen our alliance with the human rights movement to defend achievements in the field of the human rights, to fill the gaps and further develop and strengthen human rights law so that it really has primacy over commercial and investment law. We also need to continue enlarging our movement and building unity in our cross-constituency alliances: none of our constituencies alone will be able to defend their rights and effectively overcome the threats that lie ahead.

Sofia Monsalve, FIAN International

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Rights and repression, no 14

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Newsletter no 13 – Editorial

Newsletter no 13 - Food sovereignty

Food sovereignty

Illustration: Anna Loveday-Brown

“Every struggle, in any part of the world for food sovereignty is our struggle.”
Nyéléni Declaration on Food Sovereignty

At the World Food Summit in 1996, La Via Campesina (LVC) launched a concept that both challenged the corporate dominated, market driven model of globalised food production and distribution, as well as offering a new paradigm to fight hunger and poverty by developing and strengthening local economies. Since then, food sovereignty has captured the imagination of people the world over – including many governments and multilateral institutions – and has become a global rallying cry for those committed to social, environmental, economic and political justice.

Food sovereignty is different from food security in both approach and politics. Food security does not distinguish where food comes from, or the conditions under which it is produced and distributed. National food security targets are often met by sourcing food produced under environmentally destructive and exploitative conditions, and supported by subsidies and policies that destroy local food producers but benefit agribusiness corporations.
Food sovereignty emphasizes ecologically appropriate production, distribution and consumption, social-economic justice and local food systems as ways to tackle hunger and poverty and guarantee sustainable food security for all peoples. It advocates trade and investment that serve the collective aspirations of society. It promotes community control of productive resources; agrarian reform and tenure security for small-scale producers; agro-ecology; biodiversity; local knowledge; the rights of peasants, women, indigenous peoples and workers; social protection and climate justice.

In 2001, delegates from peasant, fisher-folk, indigenous peoples, civil society, and academic organisations met in Havana at the World Forum on Food Sovereignty to elaborate the different elements of food sovereignty. From 2000 onwards, campaigners against the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture demanded public support for sustainable, family based food production and called for Priority to Peoples’ Food Sovereignty and WTO out of Food and Agriculture.
The International Forum on Food Sovereignty in 2007 in Mali was a defining milestone for food sovereignty and brought together more than 500 people from 80 countries to pool ideas, strategies and actions to strengthen the global movement for food sovereignty.

The Declaration of Nyéléni encapsulates the vision of the movement and asserts: Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation… Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal-fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability… Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations.

Food sovereignty makes sense for people in both, rural and urban areas, and poor and wealthy countries. It is as much a space of resistance to neoliberalism, free market capitalism, destructive trade and investment, as a space to build democratic food and economic systems, and just and sustainable futures. Its transformative power has been acknowledged by the Special Rapporteurs to the Right to food, Jean Ziegler and Olivier de Schutter, and in key policy documents such as the IAASTD (International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development).

The majority of the world’s food is produced by over one billion small-scale food producers, many of who, tragically, are hungry themselves. We will not find lasting solutions to catastrophic climate change, environmental deterioration and economic shocks unless we amplify their voices and capacities.

The story of food sovereignty is a story of struggle and hope. This edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is dedicated to the struggles that help us to hope for a better world. Now more than ever is the time for food sovereignty.

Focus on the Global South

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Food sovereignty, no 13

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Newsletter no 12 – Editorial

Newsletter no 12 - Migration and agriculture

Migration and agriculture

Illustration: “With or without papers, workers unite!” Titom

Food is essential to life and it is also an expression of our cultures and our societies. The dominant corporate food system takes away the vital and social value of food and reduces it to a commodity; in order to profit from all stages of its intensive production, processing and distribution and ultimately from food speculation in the financial markets.
This system pushes to separate people who consume food from the ones who produce it. While family food producers continue to feed more than 70% of the world population, the neoliberal system and its trade policies drive peasants, artisanal fishers, pastoralists and indigenous people out of the their territories and support the development of intensive monoculture farms and factory farms, food processing industries and retailers, based on the labour of food workers.

More and more, these food and farm workers are migrant people obliged to leave their country in order to escape poverty and hunger. More and more, due to racial migration policies and the militarization of borders migrant people risk their lives to cross frontiers undocumented. More and more undocumented migrants are persecuted and criminalized while simultaneously being exploited and even enslaved in the food production system, to which they are indispensable. The struggle against the current global food system is also a struggle to support the rights of migrant people. The struggle for food sovereignty is also a struggle to give people back the freedom to choose whether to stay or leave their communities and territories.

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Migration and agriculture, no 12

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Newsletter no 11 – Editorial

Newsletter no 11 - Food and cities

Food and cities

“If natural food is expensive, it becomes luxury food and only rich people are able to afford it. […]
Natural food must be available locally at a reasonable price.” Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Urban agriculture: Moving towards food sovereignty?
Nearly a quarter of the world’s fresh food is supplied by approximately one billion people who produce fruits and vegetables on urban and peri-urban farms and gardens. While most of this food is consumed by the producers themselves, a substantial part goes directly into urban markets at affordable prices. Given that over half of the world’s economically poor population now live in cities, and given the dangerous volatility of global food markets, this locally-produced food is becoming increasingly important to urban food security. While much of this urban production takes place in the Global South (e.g., Hanoi: 80% of fresh vegetables, Shanghai: 60% of vegetables, 100% of milk, 90% of eggs, 50% of pork and poultry; Dakar, 60% of vegetables, 65% poultry and 50% milk; Accra, 90% of fresh vegetables; Havana: 2438,7 hectares produce 25000 tons of food each year), increasingly, urban food production is taking root in Northern cities among underserved marginalised groups. In producing their own fresh food, urban communities
are improving their diet and their incomes. With the recurrent global food price crises, urban agriculture is increasing, as is processing and distribution, and the gradual shift toward local control over the food system.

Eric Holt-Gimenez, Food First

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Food and cities, no 11

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Newsletter no 10 – Editorial

Newsletter no 10 - "Green" economy

“Green” economy

Illustration: Anna Loveday-Brown

This June in Rio de Janeiro the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20 will be held, marking two decades since the Earth Summit. The “green” economy will be the main theme of discussion and debates at the Rio+20 summit, this concept represents a way of transforming the environmental crisis into a tool for capital accumulation – considering that in current times the capitalist system regards markets as the primary medium for responding to the global environmental crisis, and the green economy marks an attempt to make this system appear “sustainable”. The current edition of the Nyéléni newsletter opens and invites discussion on the green economy, adding various elements to the debate and providing alternatives. What is certainly clear is that international capital is organizing to appropriate territories, to transform nature into another form of merchandise, all the while increasing exploitation and privatization. The “green” economy elevates the principles of commerce and profit above any form
of social consideration, above even the reproduction of life itself. Our challenge is to continue building on our mobilization capacities in our territories, based on solidarity, internationalism and the integration of peoples to convert our struggles in realities.

Our principle tasks are to globalize hope, and to globalize resistance.

CLOC-VIA CAMPESINA

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"Green" economy, no 10

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Newsletter no 9 – Editorial

Newsletter no 09 - Land grabbing

Land grabbing

Illustrations by Anna Loveday-Brown

“How firm we stand and plant our feet upon our land determines the strength of our children’s heartbeats.” Poolly Koutchak, Unalakleet, Alaska

This April the World Bank is organizing again its annual conference on land and poverty.
It is a big event gathering international bureaucracy, government representatives, mainstream academics, few big NGOs and the private sector. Under the title Land governance in a rapidly changing environment they will discuss, among other issues, how to deal with the governance challenges raised by large agricultural investments. In plain language, how to continue the appropriation of peoples’ lands and waters by private investors while pretending to help the poor. Also in April the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hold a consultation process about the best use of natural resources for boosting living standards in developing countries. The IMF seeks to reassess its policy advice on the use of natural resources in development due to the growing importance of natural resources in many economies. Despite disastrous consequences, the International Financial Institutions (IFI) continue exercising a de facto ruling role in the international governance of land and natural resources. This role is profoundly illegitimate. A small group of rich countries defending the particular interests of business and finance together with their technocrats think they can decide over our lands and territories.

But this ruling role started to be challenged: Last 9 of March, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security. With the successful completion of these negotiations after a participatory process lasting nearly three years, the CFS has shown that it has the capacity to convene multilateral negotiations with broad social participation to discuss and propose solutions to one of the most pressing problems of our time. The Guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organisations in their struggle to ensure the care and use of natural resources in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger by addressing its root causes. The CFS is a new international space with more democratic rules that allows people’s organisations to challenge the IFI’s recipes and ruling. This is a first step to democratize the decision making processes related to food and agriculture at the international level.

April is also the month of the international peasant struggle. La Via Campesina has called on all of its members and allies, fisher-folk movements, agricultural workers organisations, environmental groups, women organisations and social justice movements to display massive popular resistance to land grabbing, to corporate control over land and natural resources and to defend small-scale, family based agriculture and food production as the most socially, economically and environmentally sustainable model of using resources and ensuring the right to food for all.

Let’s take action!

Sofia Monsalve, FIAN International

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Land grabbing, no 9

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Newsletter no 8 – Editorial

Newsletter no 08 - Water

Water

The sound of water
At the ancient pond
a frog plunges into
the sound of water
Frog Haiku by Matsuo Bashô, Translated by Sam Hamill

Water for life, not for death!
Rallying cry of the International Movement of Dam Affected Peoples

Illustration, Anna Loveday-Brown

For centuries, in every part of the world, water has been a pivotal force of civilisation, culture and progress. Proximity to secure water sources has guided the itineraries of nomadic peoples and other travelers, and determined where communities and nations have established their settlements. Water has inspired poetry, music, art and literature, and has shaped the diets, cuisines and health of our families and societies. Like the air we breathe, water is the very essence of life and possibly for this reason, its use and governance are fraught with conflict and vested interests. Water has been dammed, diverted, piped, bottled, transported, contaminated, poisoned and purified, and through all these, it has been responsible as much for life, as for death. This issue of the Nyéléni newsletter describes the pressures and demands on our planet’s water sources, attempts to control access through privatisation and commodification, and the intensifying struggles by extraordinary people all over the world to defend their rights to water and to protect water from elite capture. Governments cannot be allowed to give corporations and wealthy classes preferential access to and control over water. It is imperative and urgent that we join forces to protect water as commons, as the shared, collective wealth of current and future generations.

Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South

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Water, no 8

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Newsletter no 7 – Editorial

Newsletter no 07 - Fishery and climate change

Fishery and climate change

Illustration, Anna Loveday-Brow

Fishing for their futures – small scale fishing communities fighting for their way of life.

Developing countries are generally more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than more developed countries due to their low capacity to adapt to climate change and variability. Increasing global surface temperatures, rising sea levels, irregular changes in average annual precipitation and increases in the variability and intensity of extreme weather events pose a major threat to coastal and island communities, which are heavily dependent on fish resources for their wellbeing – communities in which poverty is widespread and few alternative livelihoods are available.

Amidst the destruction caused by a lack of responsible governance of the use of land and natural resources, small-scale fishing communities are fighting to claim back their fishing grounds as governments and land use planners are seizing the catastrophe as an opportunity to halt small-scale fishing activities in such areas and allocate the areas to the development of tourist infrastructures and other uses. Fishing is not only a source of employment, income and food for small-scale fishery; it is a way of life based on social and environmental harmony which strengthens communities and supports adaptation measures particularly for the most vulnerable, especially women.

Small-scale fishing communities can build and strengthen their capacity to adapt if they are supported, and not forced to leave their waters.

Margaret Nakato, Co-President of the World Forum of Fish Harvesters & Fish Workers

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Fishery and climate change, no 7

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Newsletter no 6 – Editorial

Newsletter no 06 - Women and food sovereignty

Women and food sovereignty

Illustration, Anna Loveday-Brow

What is the necessary strategy to change the situation of women around the world?
Some feminists think that women’s distinctive characteristics, which are made invisible and/or considered inferior by a male chauvinistic and patriarchal society, should be recognized. Others claim that it is necessary to fight for wealth redistribution between men and women, thus overcoming the causes of inequality resulting from sexual division of labor and power. But many feminists have already realized that this is a false dilemma. In order to move forward it is necessary to coordinate the seemingly contradictory actions of recognition and distribution. The principle of Food Sovereignty increasingly recognizes women’s contribution in food production: from agriculture to preparing food for their families or school cafeterias and other community facilities.

It also contemplates the need to equally distribute land and the conditions of production between men and women. It is necessary to take a step forward and recognize the need to redistribute the work done by women to take care of the family – even preparing food- among all the members of the family living together. Rural and urban women and girls around the world work more hours than men, considering the number of hours dedicated to paid work and to housework taken together. They are the first ones to get up and the last ones to go to bed. Enjoying Food Sovereignty means changing both the food production and consumption model. This implies having time to cook, eat and share as well as having time for themselves. This change cannot be based on the increasing work of women. In order to have more time, we neither need fast-food nor canned food, but we do need public policies that support reproduction, such as food in schools and popular restaurants and… distributing work among all!

Miriam Nobre, Coordinator of the International Secretariat of the World March of Women

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Women and food sovereignty, no 6

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