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 no 45 – Editorial

Newsletter no 45 - Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems

Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems

This year marks 25 years since the paradigm of food sovereignty was launched at the World Food Summit 1996 in Rome as a direct challenge to market-based food security promoted through the World Trade Organisation (WTO).  Food sovereignty asserts the autonomy and agency of small-scale food producers and workers in the face of increasing corporate power over the entire realm of food.  Since its launch, the food sovereignty movement has grown, diversified, and birthed numerous initiatives to address historical and emerging injustices, inequalities, rights abuses, and oppressions. Today, the movement is at the cutting-edge of real systemic change, with millions of people all over the world engaged in and supporting solidarity economies, agroecology, territorial markets, cooperatives, the defense of land and territories, and the rights of small-scale food producers, workers, migrants, indigenous peoples, women and people living in protracted crises.

Ironically, this year, the United Nations will convene a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) that is the polar opposite of food sovereignty. The structure, content, governance and outcomes of the UNFSS are dominated by actors affiliated with the World Economic Forum (WEF), as well as government and UN officials who believe that successfully tackling hunger, unemployment, climate change and biodiversity loss requires the central involvement of corporations since they have capital, technologies and infrastructure that surpass most nations and the entire UN system. 

The coincidence of these two moments clearly shows fundamentally opposing ideas about food systems. The UNFSS adopts a lens that serves the interests of the industrial, globalized, corporate controlled food system. By deepening dependency on corporate dominated global value chains, and capital-intensive and market mechanisms, this approach sidelines human rights and impedes real transformation of food systems. Food sovereignty, on the other hand, tackles root causes of hunger and malnutrition, emphasizes democratic control over food systems, confronts power asymmetries and calls for radical economic, social and governance changes to build just, equal, territorially rooted food systems that are in harmony with nature, revitalize biodiversity, and ensure the rights of people and communities. 

Corporations are using their considerable resources to co-opt the conceptualization and governance of food systems through financing, trade, investment, and multi-stakeholder platforms. The UNFSS is a dangerously perfect example of corporate designed multistakeholderism, where corporations can influence public decision making at the highest level but make no public interest commitments themselves. The UNFSS process has been characterized by a lack of transparency in decision-making and strong involvement of corporations in all parts of its structure, posing serious problems of accountability, legitimacy, and democratic control of the UN.

Over the past year we have demonstrated our ability to mobilize across multiple constituencies around the world against the corporate capture of food and for food sovereignty. We have succeeded in challenging the legitimacy of the Summit and prevented formal agreement to the creation of new institutions, such as a panel of experts on food systems.  The Counter-Mobilization to Transform Food Systems organized from July 25-28 reached almost 11,000 people world-wide.

Food is a basic need and a human right: food systems provide livelihoods for nearly a third of humanity and are intimately connected to health and ecosystems.  We need, therefore, to continue strengthening the convergence of food, health, environmental and climate justice movements, and continue to rise up against corporate food systems that are destroying our planet and our communities.

FIAN and Focus on the Global South

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Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems, no 45

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Agroecology in action

Newsletter no 20 - Agroecology and climate

Agroecology in action 1

Reproducing and exchanging seeds

The historical practices of reproducing and exchanging seeds with neighbours and between farms constitute a key strategy for good sovereignty and agroecology, which makes possible the construction, development and maintenance of diverse, complex, autonomous and resilient food systems.

The reproduction of seeds permits each family or farm to have the quantity of seeds at their disposal that they need – in order to plant or sow at the moment they consider most appropriate – which allows the productive system to be integrated into the family’s dynamic as well as the weather conditions. In addition, as Blanca from the Uruguayan Native and Indigenous Seed Network says; “When you produce your own seed, the seed is automatically «guaranteed», because you know what you are planting and what its behaviour will be.” As farm-saved seeds have developed a constant dialogue between farmers and their environment, their management is simpler and better adapted to local conditions – rendering it more resistant and less dependent on inputs. Seeds produced in this way can be planted with diverse ends: they can be used to produce food for the family and community, for animals and as a green manure.

As Pablo, also a member of the Network in the department of Tacuarembó in Uruguay says: “The exchange is so important because if one year you lose a variety you know that your neighbour will have it. In this way the community will never lose everything. For this reason working in groups and in networks is fundamental.” In the case of the Native and Indigenous Seed Network, the existence of 24 local groups has made it possible to recuperate, reproduce and exchange seeds in diverse conditions, enriching these productive agroecological systems.

Autonomy is not constructed from the level of the individual, but from a group-community level and through the process of exchange with other groups and communities. The practice of exchange feeds relationships between neighbours and builds the social fabric at a local, regional and national level. For this reason the organisation of different types of meetings throughout the year by the network is so important: Meetings of local groups, groups representatives at national level, regional meetings, and every two years a national level meeting of all members. These meetings are always accompanied by a party and celebration where seeds and knowledge are exchanged.

The most important issue – which gives continuity to this process of co-evolution of seeds and knowledge, is the permanence of people in the fields. For this it is vital to continue the struggle to ensure that people can live and produce from the land, in their territories.

Agroecology in action 2

Agroecology as a model of production

Ramrati Devi is a small scale farmer from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. Her husband was a farmer but like many others in India, he abandoned it due to poor yield that led to losses with each harvest. That was when Ramrati decided to take the reins in her hands. She became a member of Laghu Seemant Krishak Morcha or Small and Marginal Farmers Front, Uttar Pradesh. There, she learnt about agroecological practices. With organic farming techniques she changed things around for her family today. Simple practices – such as multiple cropping on her one-acre farm- have produced high yields and a variety of food. She grows as many as thirty-two different varieties of crops that include wheat, mustard, sugarcane, garlic, coriander, spinach and potatoes for her family’s daily consumption.  Her family of twelve members depends on the farm’s food.  Ramrati is a role model and preacher of agroecological practices now.

Besides its emphasis on sustaining the environment and social inclusion through participatory frameworks, agroecological models have produced impressive economic results in terms of yields, productivity, nutrition and efficiency. It also contributes significantly towards food security and sovereignty. Agroecology models are redefining the relationship between farmers, agriculture and nature where instead of machines, farmers’ families are toiling happily; instead of costly external inputs, only farm based inputs are the used in the form of biopesticdies and biofertilizers; where monoculture is replaced by biodiversity; and where women farmers have an equal status with their men folks as seeding, weeding, thrashing, harvesting are their forte.

Agro-Ecology is fast becoming a dominant agricultural paradigm for small-scale resource poor farmers around the world. Farmers are adopting this farming technique not only for their sustenance but also to resist the corporate agricultural model pushed through green revolution and then, the gene revolution. In this age of ever increasing cost of production, indebtedness and large-scale suicides, farmers have to make their choice for changing their agricultural practices towards holistic and ecological model.  The diversity of agro-ecological models being practiced in India offer them this option in the form of Natural Farming, Zero Budget Natural Farming, Permaculture, Organic Farming, Rishi Kheti. However Agroecology based organic farming is different from the neoliberal organic farming model being promoted by the same corporations who have thrived on green revolution technologies, making farmers dependent on non-sustainable and costly external inputs.

Many more farmers like Ramrati Devi are required to spread the agroecological paradigm to defeat the capitalist and export oriented neoliberal agriculture who has threatened the survival of millions of small and marginal farmers in India and around the world.

International Forum on Peasant Agroecology Mali 24th-27th of February

Voices from the field

Newsletter no 44 - Communicating for food sovereignty: people’s culture and popular education

Voice from the field 1

Illustrations and comics to promote food sovereignty and peasants’ rights

“The Amrita Bhoomi book of Illustration on Natural farming explores the experiences of rural farmers in their ecological practices of soil restoration whilst also highlighting the horror of industrial farming. Working with peasants and children at Amrita Bhoomi we collated stories and inputs, using the local white bird and the ever-giving earth worm to weave these stories.” say Chilli and Yeme who worked on this book (only in Kannada language).  “Using local symbols and folklore, we created a story to teach children the importance of the agroecology and natural farming as an alternative. School Children in our area now uses this book and develop short projects around it.” adds Chukki Nanjudaswamy from Amrita Bhoomi.

Meanwhile, Confédération Paysanne in France has developed an illustrated novel on corporate capture of the seed system. Damien Houdebine, National Secretary in charge of plant and vegetable production, talks about The History of seeds: Resistances to the privatization of living things : “The debates on seeds and GMOs are highly publicized but there is an abundance of incorrect information in circulation! We wanted to create accessible educational materials aimed, in particular, at young people. We think we’ve met that challenge with this comic! Its publication has been a real success. It is on the table at every peasant festival and accompanies us on all our actions for food sovereignty!”

Carlos Julio, an artist and activist with the MNCI Somos Tierra (Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indígena) in Argentina who illustrated the sketches of Peasant and Rural Women with Rights explains: “The best praise I usually receive as a cartoonist is when comrades from the Peasant Movement tell me “I felt reflected in that drawing”, “it expresses our struggles”, “it expresses our life”…”. Another praise that moves me is when they tell me “it made me laugh a lot”. I also know that when we make materials for reflection and debate, the drawings help to question reality, and to get a message across, beyond words. I really liked doing the drawings for Peasant and Rural Women with Rights. Showing peasant life, making people smile, making them think and discuss. That’s no mean feat”.

Voices from the field 2

Voz Campesina, the role of community radios in promoting food sovereignty

Azul Cordo, Real World Radio

Ten years ago, Real World Radio and The Latin American Coordinator of Rural Organizations (CLOC-Vía Campesina) created “Voz Campesina”. It is a radio programme that covers the main issues of the peasant movement, its struggles, challenges and achievements, and guarantees coverage of events organised by CLOC and its allies.

Voz Campesina has its own agenda and, at the same time, brings a peasant and popular, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-colonial and feminist perspective on other issues that affect everyone. For example, in the last year, it provided analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding that it is the consequence of the neoliberal systemic crisis that we have been going through for years, with an emphasis on the solutions that the peasantry already has in place, such as agroecology and food sovereignty.

Each programme seeks to guarantee the representation of men, women, young people and adults from CLOC and from the South and Central American and Caribbean regions. In its content, peasant experiences for access to land are relevant, along with analysis and denunciations from the regions. Broadening the dissemination is a challenge. The programme is available on the RMR and CLOC websites and can also be played on podcast platforms.

Voices from the field 3

Peasant newspapers, an example from South Korea

Jeungsik Shim, editor in chief of KPL News, South Korea

The KPL News is a newspaper that is run and distributed by the Korean Peasant League. Since its foundation in 1990, KPL realized the need of its own media. KPL continued to struggle for peasant issues, but the existing media was not paying attention, or they distorted the struggles. Finally in 2006, KPL took over a weekly newspaper specializing in agriculture and issued the first edition on September 25th as reorganized KPL News (Han-kuk-nong-jung in Korean).

It is a weekly newspaper specializing in agriculture, covering news on farmers and rural areas. Newspapers are published every Monday and are published four times a month and 48 times a year, and are delivered to over 30,000 peasants across the country. It also has a web version http://www.ikpnews.net/ which is updated frequently so that readers who do not receive paper newspapers can read them anywhere in the country.

Voices from the field 4

Arpillería, an art form for telling and not forgetting

Blanca Nubia Anaya Díaz, member of the Movimiento Social en defensa de Ríos Sogamoso y Chucurí, Colombia

The Movimiento Social en defensa de Ríos Sogamoso y Chucurí is a movement that was born to oppose the Hidrosogamoso dam, and is also part of the Ríos Vivos Colombia movement. Arpillería is an art form that allows us to tell what we have lived through in a different language. In our eagerness to make the problem visible and bring the message to others, we took threads, needles, scraps of cloth and began to stitch everyday scenes onto jute.

We make these memories so that those who see them will not allow megaprojects to cause this damage in their lands. We capture what we have lived through, which is why in the scenes there are dead fish and few people. We use rustic materials and support the work with collage. We want to show people what we have lost.

The idea is to continue with arpillería because it is a very beautiful technique. Between threads and needles, we chat, talk, tell stories. When we started making these environmental memoirs, we discovered that our dead were not free, that our displaced people were not the bad ones, that all this had a background that little by little we discovered and we captured in the jutes.

We are going to continue working because we want to create a memory so that this is not repeated – a memory of peace. We fight for peace and our weapons are a needle and thread.

Boxes

Newsletter no 44 - Communicating for food sovereignty: people’s culture and popular education

Box 1

The Nyéléni newsletter facilitates a pedagogy of peoples in the struggle for food sovereignty

In 2007 the Nyéléni Forum brought together representatives from organisations and movements of small-scale food providers, consumers and civil society organisations engaged in the struggle for food sovereignty. These participants shared knowledge, visions, strategies and practices for transforming their communities, societies and economies through the principles of food sovereignty. These discussions revealed the wealth of knowledge continuously created by food sovereignty practitioners even as they faced social, economic, environmental and political challenges. They also highlighted the centrality of food sovereignty as an alliance-building platform to resist neoliberalism, global capitalism, authoritarianism, and all forms of injustice, inequality and violence. Participants pledged to build solidarity within and across movements, genders, cultures and regions by strengthening communication, political education, awareness and peer-to-peer learning.

The Nyéléni newsletter was created to respond to all these commitments: to give voice to the priorities, concerns, experiences and knowledge of the food sovereignty movement, and to foster dialogue across sectors and actors.

The newsletter was conceived as an educational tool to contextualize and explain complex issues to movement actors—especially those at the grassroots and on the frontlines—as well as a vehicle to bring the first hand experiences of those actors to the fore. While allied researchers are invited to contribute articles, the newsletter mainly contains the movements’ analysis and views. These analyses are complemented by direct testimonies from grassroots actors, information about struggles and initiatives, and outreach materials from movements across the world. The movement members decide the topics of each edition. The articles are written in an accessible style that is easy to understand and translate into other languages. The newsletter can be downloaded/read online for free (in English, Spanish and French) at nyeleni.org and all content is copy-free.

Box 2

Brasil de Fato[1]: a popular communication alternative against the hegemony of the mass media

Brasil de Fato was officially launched on 25 January 2003 during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre with the aim of breaking new ground in the hegemonic dispute in the field of communication. Since its creation, it has covered economic and political events; it promotes the activities and struggles of social movements in Brazil and Latin America from a left-wing point of view, presenting analyses of the current situation and national and international events.

As an alternative media it contributes to the analysis and contextualisation of another Brazil. It presents a Brazil in constant mobilisation and identifies the scenarios of political disputes in order to create a communication agenda by putting on the table issues that the mainstream media intentionally hide or minimise. The alternative media affirms the vision of another world proposed by leftist theorists, creating space for the approach of criticism and cultural valorisation from the popular classes, workers who defend their political interests and promote the debating of ideas. Brasil de Fato is also a space of denunciation deeply committed to transformation, with a vision of international solidarity, pluralist in its ideas, and a source of information and reflection for activists in support of the social struggle.

With media such as Brasil de Fato, a communication strategy is created in the face of the communication hegemony of the dominant groups and is able to transform the national and international political agenda by adding the voices of the movements that fight for the construction of another possible world.

[1] Brasil de Fato is a Brazilian online newspaper and a radio agency. https://www.brasildefato.com.br/

Box 3

Peasant songs – The carriers of wisdom, memories and resistance

To understand the rich and diverse history and evolution of peasant and indigenous practices, one only needs to listen to the countless number of folklore and songs that exist among the people around the world.  In this section we look at two peasant songs from Uganda and Turkey that communicate local struggles of the peasants and Indigenous Peoples.

Icamo Irudu Laki, Uganda (Luo/Lango language)

Composed during a period of food scarcity due to the community’s shift from growing local food crops whose seeds they had control of, to new crops introduced by the government. The harvest from the new crops was sold to middlemen cheaply, leaving farmers unable to buy food for them and their families. The new crops made farmers dependent on the seed traders and government for seeds since they could not save, multiply and freely share them, hence lost seed sovereignty. The song encourages small-scale farmers to go back to local food plants that promote a farmer-managed seed system and address malnutrition and hunger. The song also shows that when you eat local food plants, it’s as if you’re brushing your teeth because they are healthy and free from chemicals. When it’s being sung, there are some additional words that are said by women as they share their achievement stories about overcoming food scarcity in their households using traditional local food plants.

Original version in Luo/Lango

ICAMO IRUDU LAKI          
 Icamo irudu laki X3
 Can dek rac
 Gin omio lango camo ajonga doo
 Can dek rac
  
 Nen ibot Joci gi doo
 Can dek rac
 Gin omio lango camo ajonga doo
 Can dek rac
 Translation
  
 EAT AND BRUSH YOUR TEETH 
Eat local food plants and brush your teeth X3
Food scarcity is bad
The reason why Langis* eat local foods plants without pasting or frying
Food scarcity is bad
  
Look at it from those of Joci**
Food scarcity is bad
The reason why Langis eat local food plants without   pasting or frying
Food scarcity is bad

*Langis are people from the Lango sub-region in the northern region of Uganda, most of who grow crops and keep livestock.

** Joci is the name of a person/neighbour whose household is struggling with food scarcity. It can be replaced with any name of anyone in the community struggling with food scarcity.

İşkencedere’den (Eşkincidere) elime kalan bir çakıl taşı, Turkey

This song was composed during the resistance of the Ikızdere people against a private company with strong ties to the government and a bad history of environmental/land destruction. The company, through a presidential decree, is now destroying the İşkencedere valley for the quarry needed for port construction in İkizdere, Rize.  Ikızdere villagers, led by peasant women took action to stop this destruction of their valley by keeping watch over it while seeking legal recourse and an interdict. Women are in the front line defending their land and the rights of the nature. People are keeping watch on the trees, using the mountain, forest roads as their roads are blocked by the military.

 Original version in Turkish

İşkencedere’den (Eşkincidere) elime kalan bir çakıl taşı
  
Bir gün Boğacak seni anaların gözyaşı
Hep bulanık akıyor İşkencedereleri
  
İki tabur askerle beklersin dozerleri
Ben köyümde büyüdüm
Bilmiyorum şehri
Vermedin insanlara, dozer kadar değeri
  
Translation
                
A pebble left in my hands from Eşkencidere. 
  
One day, the tears of mothers will suffocate you. 
  
The Eşkencidere running muddy now.
You put two battalions of soldiers to wait for the bulldozers. 
I was born in a village, I do not know the city. 
You didn’t give value to the people as you have given to the bulldozers!
  

Box 4

CLOC-Via Campesina school of communication

The Latin American Coordinator of Rural Organizations (CLOC-Via Campesina) held the fifth Continental School of Communication in 2020 as part of its process of technical, political and ideological training for organisational purposes. After several events held in different countries, always for communicators from the organisations that make up CLOC and its historical allies, the 2020 School was virtual.

CLOC is a continental organisation that brings together peasant, Indigenous, Afro-descendant and women’s organisations from 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This fifth School made it possible to study the current context of the dispute in communication; on the one hand, as an instrument of manipulation used by imperialism against progressive countries and social movements, and on the other hand, as a popular tool for the construction and strengthening of the peasant movement. They were also able to deepen their understanding of internationalism and its implications for popular struggles.

During the process, the communicators got to know and evaluate the current communication work of the CLOC at the continental level, as a strategy against hegemony in the class struggle, and in favour of food sovereignty, agrarian reform and agroecology.

This fifth School also organised practical workshops with expert facilitators and activists from CLOC and allied organisations, such as ALBA Movimientos, the Continental Day for Democracy and against Neoliberalism, Real World Radio, Código Sur, and communicators from former progressive governments, such as that of Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Through these workshops, the communicators strengthened their skills in areas such as photography, video, audio, graphic design, social networks, newsletters and internal communication.

“It was an important space for exchanging knowledge and updating knowledge, given the great activity that we develop as activists and communicators of the organisations. In general terms, our expectations were fulfilled, although it is never enough when it comes to improving in order to contribute to the great battle for ideas in the communications arena”. Participant of the 5th CLOC School of Communication.

The very rich process of training in popular communication in this fifth school provided many lessons, challenges and, above all, a collective that is growing in transformative dreams and hopes, strengthened in the revolutionary and internationalist spirit.

Communicating to build and to transform. From Our Lands, Unity, Struggle and Resistance, for Socialism and the Sovereignty of Our Peoples!

In the spotlight

Newsletter no 44 - Communicating for food sovereignty: people’s culture and popular education

In the spotlight

The role of rural popular communications in the struggles of the peoples

Communication is a fundamental tool for all struggles, but it becomes absolutely essential for those that are territorially dispersed. The peasant struggle may have physical distances of thousands of miles between people, but it is a unified struggle. Popular communication in rural areas has several roles – to transmit knowledge, to resist corporate media, to recognize other communities, to reach where hegemonic media does not reach, to work from a position of solidarity, to contribute to popular education and to support the struggle.

We talked about popular and rural communication with a number of people – Viviana Catrileo, leader of The National Rural and Indigenous Women’s Association (ANAMURI) in Chile, which is part of the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC-La Via Campesina); Elizabeth Mpofu, general coordinator of La Via Campesina, from Zimbabwe; Anuka De Silva, from the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) in Sri Lanka, member of the International Coordinating Committee of La Via Campesina (ICC), and from the peasant-based media Visura Radio.

“Rural popular communications exist in many different forms and are based on our traditions as peasants and Indigenous People. These include peasant songs, mistica, paintings, art and dance, among other things,” explains Elizabeth Mpofu about the role of communication within communities. These communications are key to intergenerational exchange with diverse objectives – “not only to affirm our identity and belonging, but also to perpetuate our harmony with mother earth, our source of life, our gratitude for our food sources, and to preserve dignity and respect for humanity”.

Telling stories of struggle and resistance, passing on teachings and lessons learned about forms of organization and societies is essential. Especially, explains Viviana Catrileo, in times when “modernity and capitalist conceptions of development have been pulverizing the value of multidimensional life in our lands and their cultural and spiritual diversities, which is linked to the philosophy of ‘kvme mogen’ or living well in its maximum expression”.

For Anuka De Silva, popular media are necessary because communities do not have spaces in the mass media and often do not have access to them either. “We really need to build a solidarity group of strong media for the people’s struggle,” she says.

Popular communication connects people, unites struggles, promotes solidarity, and crosses borders. From the experience of La Via Campesina, Mpofu recounts that the slogan of this immense worldwide movement, “Globalize the struggle, globalize hope,” has been realised thanks to citizen and community based media that in her words “have created a network of global solidarity and built alliances.” “Through the awareness created by alternative media, we have been able to grow and connect the dots of our struggles to build the movement for food sovereignty,” adds Mpofu. From Sri Lanka, Visura Radio shares knowledge from farmers, problematises issues such as health and environmental impact, and tells stories that show the possibility and benefits of building a more liveable reality. This is their contribution to strengthening and building food sovereignty.

No initiative that challenges power is free of difficulties and risks. De Silva tells us: “we have a military government here, they are trying to control us, we have suffered some security threats”. Catrileo also remarks: “To dream and communicate from the anti-hegemonic path is increasingly dangerous and more difficult when it is the impoverished and plundered peoples who intend to make our communication an alternative to the neoliberal model”. “The criminalization of social protest also falls on the media and its popular communicators because at the same time it constitutes a threat to the established order”, she adds.

In the same way, it is a great challenge to sustain economic independence and the lack of material resources. Time management and the insufficient number of people to take on tasks (often there are no resources for paid workers) are also issues that the popular media must overcome in order to continue their work.

Communication is part of a whole. In Mpofu’s words, it is one more ingredient in what will be the final dish. “La Via Campesina is like a pot that cooks and combines and mixes the different ingredients to become a good, tasty and healthy meal, where the diner can identify the individual ingredients while enjoying the meal as a whole. This is how La Via Campesina gives importance to popular rural communications: it embraces diversity to build a collective voice.”

In this diversity we find the intersection of struggles, the need for popular, rural communication with a feminist perspective. “This feminism that seeks to vindicate women in the historical struggle of the peoples and their revolutions is an invitation to add the voices that have been anonymous and marginalized for centuries by patriarchal societies,” says Catrileo. She also emphasises the cross over with the territorial. “The peasant and popular struggles in which we women are framed have clear expressions in the land, in the care and respect for mother earth and the defence of the biodiversity that sustains the balance of nature”.

Rural popular communications are key in the struggle of the peoples. They accompany, build, disseminate and unite the struggles, at the same time that they teach how to live in other ways. Says Mpofu: “Every time we get together as La Via Campesina, we sing, dance, do mistica and exchange information in a way that does not promote competition among members, but rather complements them”.

Newsletter no 44 – Editorial

Newsletter no 44 - Communicating for food sovereignty: people’s culture and popular education

Communicating for food sovereignty: people’s culture and popular education

Illustration: Chille and Yemee for Amrita Bhoomi agroecology school in India.

Food sovereignty, among the multitude of ideas that it encompasses, is also about defending the billion diversities that exist on this planet, and is a celebration of our many unique practices, tastes, cultures and customs. An important pillar in this struggle for food sovereignty is the role played by popular rural cultures, of peasants, fisherfolk, family farmers and Indigenous Peoples. These communities are inheritors of a rich and diverse tradition of oral and visual forms of communication, whether in the form of folklore, legends, tales, proverbs, songs, murals and more. These varied forms of communication are also the recorded histories of human struggles and survival.

However, this diversity is, today, under threat. Just as the agro-industrial complex pushes for a homogenous, singular view of a global agrifood system, the international-corporate-media complex has also resulted in a singular, centralised form of mainstream communication. A handful of corporations today control much of what we read or watch and how people access information.

Despite the challenges, organised peoples and communities around the world are countering this marginalisation of peoples’ culture. The current edition of the Nyeleni newsletter focuses on the wide variety of popular, community-driven communication approaches, drawing inspiration from local symbols, context and culture. It explores how these approaches are integral to pedagogy among peasants, family farmers, Indigenous Peoples and fisherfolk, crucial for political formation and popular education, and an essential element of our struggle for food sovereignty.

Friends of The Earth International, Real World Radio and La Via Campesina

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Communicating for food sovereignty: people's culture and popular education, no 44

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Voices from the field

Newsletter no 42 - Ten years of Nyéléni - Much to celebrate!

Voices from the field 1

Women in the struggle for Food Sovereignty – We want to continue to play our key role: feeding humanity

Excerpt from an interview with Francisca Rodriguez of Anamuri, CLOC-Via Campesina, Chile.

Peasants of the world are highly diverse peoples, communities, organisations and families. We represent different cultures and worldviews.

The process of discussing and debating around food sovereignty has allowed us to recognise and value our peasant activities — and recognise that women have been fundamental to the development of agriculture and continue to be key to the production, processing and transformation of food.

We have strongly promoted Agroecology – not as something new that is emerging – but rather as part of a process of recovering ancestral practices in agriculture, which have been developed by indigenous and original peoples up until the present day.
Never in history have we properly realized the value of the countryside for the survival of humanity itself – we are the guardians of the land, we live where the resources are, and our task is to fight to preserve them for current and future generations.

We are proud to be what we are, we do not want to migrate to the cities or be forced abroad by force, we want to continue fulfilling our fundamental role: feeding humanity with our work, our knowledge and our natural goods, ensuring that the right to food is fulfilled for all without exception, and that Mother Earth is cared for while we obtain our sustenance from her.

Voices from the field 2

Food Sovereignty – challenges and hopes for fisher communities

Ibu Zainab, member of Solidaritas Perempuan Anging Mammiri – Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The challenge faced by fisherwomen in our struggle for food sovereignty is that businesses and corporations are taking away the ocean which is the source of our livelihoods. These corporations deny us access to the ocean, pollute the coastal environment, and even trigger conflicts within communities. Our government has never listened to our demands, but instead sided with these corporations.

As women, our identity as fisherwomen is also not recognized and is often attached to our husbands’ role as fishermen. I hope that the government protects our right to food and our access to marine resources so we can fish and sustain our livelihood as small-scale food producers. There must be a solution to ensure the struggle for space between company interests, government agendas and community rights does not marginalize fisherwomen. Because Indonesia is an archipelago, fishermen and fisherwomen are heroes of the nation in ensuring a healthy diet (fish as major source of protein) and our rights must be respected, protected and fulfilled.

Voice from the field 3

The Importance of alliances for Food Sovereignty from the perspective of two US women farmers

How does organizing in cross-sectoral alliances fit into the global effort toward Food Sovereignty?
Patti Naylor, USFSA member and Coordinating Committee member of the Civil Society and Indigenous Mechanism for North America.

As a farmer, I see around me how corporate-dominated agriculture does not support rural communities, farmer livelihoods, or Mother Earth’s essential sources of life. Nor does it produce healthy food – it instead relies on long, complex supply chains that result in highly processed foods. Food sovereignty is necessary to replace this disastrous system. Coming together in organizations and building our collective strength into alliances is critical as the momentum of industrial agriculture gains speed and power worldwide, becoming a force that could become impossible to stop. Time is critical. The injustices of capitalism, impacts of climate change, and disruptions to territorial markets due to COVID-19 are putting food producers in dire circumstances.

Just like upheavals in the past, farmers, fishers, peasants, and rural workers who cannot survive economically will leave their farms and communities. The production of local food and even the ability to organize in resistance will be greatly diminished. Rural areas will be depopulated as people move to cities in search of jobs. These changes may be irreversible. As we recognize the urgency of these situations, we must continue to build alliances that are strong and are based on clearly defined, common goals to reach food sovereignty for all peoples.

Can you tell about the US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA)?
Jennifer Taylor, national coordinator for the US Food Sovereignty Alliance.

Like the Nyeleni 2007 Forum for Food Sovereignty, the USFSA membership is made up of family farmers, fisherfolk, ranchers, farm workers, women, youth, rural and urban workers, consumers, etc. who believe that food is critical to humanity and that healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through agroecological methods is the basis of healthy food systems and healthy environments. We believe in the benefits of agroecology- food sovereignty policies.

The USFSA upholds the right to food as a basic human right. As an agroecology-organic BIPOC small farmer promoting wellbeing and quality of life, I would emphasize that our Human Right is to the availability of and access to healthy, nutritious food, that benefits healthy farms and community environments, and that fosters healthy communities — this critical emphasis upholds the right to local and global food sovereignty and is inclusive of underserved farming populations, black indigenous farmers and farmers of color and their communities. Participatory capacity building of local and global agroecology-organic smallholder farmers and their communities is vital to enable healthy local and global food systems. USFSA supports participatory capacity building strategies that enable the wellbeing, livelihoods, and ability of local and global black indigenous farmers and farmers of color and their communities.

Voice from the field 4

Agroecology is not just a set of practices, but a way of life

Anuka Desilva, MONLAR/ LVC, Sri Lanka.

Agroecology is not just a set of practices, but a way of life. It is as much about nurturing our soil, our fields – as it is about solidarity between our peoples. Without solidarity between people, there is no agroecology.

In Sri Lanka, the young collective of peasants from Dikkubura, Ahangama and Galle have attended agroecological formation sessions, met peasants from other regions, and studied and debated on not just the practises we follow in the field, but also the politics of food in general.

Through several training sessions, our collective learnt and exchanged information regarding the preparation of beejamrutha, jeevamrutha, ghana jeevamrutha, agniastra and other inputs used in natural farming. We also learned about dry-land horticulture and different techniques of grafting in horticulture crops. Various seed saving techniques were discussed too. These were the practical aspects. However, we do not just stop there. We also studied the dynamics of the global food system that is now in the hands of transnational corporations. We analysed the impacts of free-trade agreements on local production and consumption. We studied the gender and caste disparity in the ownership of land in South Asia and much more. So the training sessions are often a mix of practical and political aspects of the peasantry.

Agroecology is at its core giving autonomy to people to design their own food systems, based on local resources and local labour. It is a system that allows us to produce food in harmony with nature and that prioritises the food sovereignty of the local community above everything else.

We need to be clear about this – a set of sustainable practices alone will not help advance Agroecology. The training sessions we have in LVC are about both the practical and political aspects of Agroecology that allow us to make it a tool for achieving food sovereignty.

Voice from the field 5

Food Sovereignty – challenges and hopes for pastoral communities

Fernando Garcia, Campo Adentro, European Shepherds Network — WAMIP, Spain.

In April, while the Covid crisis was at its worst, different social movements’ representatives of the Food Sovereignty movement wrote a letter titled “COVID-19 — Small-scale food producers stand in solidarity and will fight to bring healthy food to all.”(https://www.foodsovereignty.org/covid-19/).

We can hardly foresee the impact that this crisis might entail.
On one hand there is a growing concern regarding the unsustainable patterns of our food models – especially the danger of intensive livestock systems and factory farms which are associated with ecosystem disruption due to industrial agribusiness expansion (such as native forests being removed for palm oil plantations).

On the other hand climate change is more present than ever, and the importance of small-scale food producers is crucial. This crisis is a sort of “stress test” as economists say, for an entire food system that is supplying an ever-growing urban population and is based on globalized transport and circulation. Maybe patterns we have seen increasing till now could change.

This crisis is surely hitting small businesses harder (such as shops and restaurants), which are generally more closely linked to small-scale local producers. Some actors – with e-commerce now king – might promote an even faster digitalization of food systems driven by corporate interests and profit.

Pastoralists in Europe and the world look at these scenarios with great concern, but also with the confidence that comes with the knowledge that they are a vital part of the solution. We hope that the environmentalist movement doesn’t simplify the slogan “no more meat” and impose an urban-western-centred view of veganism, but that it will instead promote a responsible consumption of quality, healthy and local animal products from pastoralist systems.

Grassroot organisations, joined in a renewed World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples & Pastoralists – WAMIP — are now active in different spaces and working to bridge the discussions on Agroecology and Food Sovereignty (born in the context of peasant struggles) to the particularities of pastoralism. We together made and acknowledge the Declaration of Peasants – and Pastoralists – Rights and now we need to make sure that real spaces of participation and recognition put pastoralists first — such as at the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub of the FAO, or the GASL and LEAP initiatives . We have managed to have the FAO COAG (Committee on Agriculture) pass the proposal making 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, and trust IPC and other civil society processes.

The hardest thing is staying in touch in spite of the distances, and to make time for building alliances besides our everyday work…but if we don’t, anti-pastoralist policies and economic interests will put in danger our way of life, and the territories and landscapes that with our animals we nurture.

Voices from the field 6

The fruits of Food Sovereignty — organized youth

David Otieno, Kenyan Peasant League Youth/LVC, Kenya.

Food sovereignty is about food producers and consumers taking total control of the food production process from seeds, land and water to markets, inputs and distribution. We as young people are critical in ensuring that Food Sovereignty is attained. Our greatest strength lies in our collective capacity to live and build a more fair and just world.

Within LVC, we have been organizing ourselves through training processes to establish youth brigades that strive to correct the current broken global food system, which is based on agribusinesses that are also responsible for climate change. We, the youth, have been doing this in order to place LVC members who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than at the mercy of markets and corporations as envisioned by agribusiness.

Through LVC Southern and Eastern Africa, our youth articulation has been in the forefront in reclaiming wastelands for food production. A good example is in South Africa where youth, members of the Food Sovereignty Campaign and the Landless People’s Movement – all members of LVC – have been engaged in an “occupy” campaign aimed at turning wastelands into spaces for producing food.

In Kenya through the Kenyan Peasants League youth collective we are engaged in ensuring that seeds and food has been distributed to members and others who have been in dire need during the coronavirus pandemic. Our efforts have also included assisting older members to till and plant their farms and documenting all the seeds among members to ensure ease of distribution.

MST youth brigades have also been engaged in reconstruction processes especially following cyclone Idai that hit most parts of Southern Africa and were also involved in solidarity initiatives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking back at the Nyeleni forum for Food Sovereignty held in 2007 in a small Malian village, one sees that food sovereignty and youths are strongly linked: the struggle for food sovereignty has helped organize youths while an organized youth is ensuring the achievement of food sovereignty.

Boxes

Newsletter no 42 - Ten years of Nyéléni - Much to celebrate!

Box 1

Why was the Nyéléni newsletter created?

The International Forum on Food Sovereignty in Mali in 2007—the Nyeleni Forum—brought together over 500 representatives from organisations/movements of small-scale food providers, consumers and civil society organisations, all of whom were involved in strengthening and expanding food sovereignty at local and global levels.

During the Forum, participants from 80 countries shared knowledge, visions, strategies and practices for transforming their communities, societies and economies through the principles of food sovereignty. These discussions revealed the wealth of knowledge continuously being created by food sovereignty practitioners as they confronted social, economic, environmental and political challenges. It also highlighted the centrality and utility of food sovereignty as a platform to build alliances and strategies to resist neoliberalism, global capitalism, authoritarianism, and all forms of injustice, inequality and violence. Participants pledged to build solidarity, unity and common cause within and across movements, constituencies, genders, cultures and regions by strengthening communication, political education, awareness and peer-to-peer learning.

The Nyeleni newsletter was created to respond to these commitments: to give voice to the priorities, concerns, experiences and knowledge of the food sovereignty movement, and foster dialogue across sectors/actors. The newsletter was conceptualized as an informational and educational tool to contextualize and explain complex issues to movement actors—especially those at the grassroots and in the frontlines—as well as bring their particular experiences to the forefront. The newsletter is produced four times a year in English, Spanish and French, and shared all over the world through conventional and social media.

The topics of each edition of the bulletin are decided by movement members, and the articles are written in styles and lengths that are easy to understand and translate. While allied researchers/academics are invited to present analyses, each newsletter contains testimonies from grassroots actors, and information about struggles, initiatives and outreach materials from movements across the world. The overall goal of the newsletter was and remains to be facilitating a pedagogy of peoples committed to building and realizing food sovereignty.

Box 2

Song – La Cumbia del Campesinx

La cumbia del agronegocio, la bailan los asesinos,
La cumbia del agronegocio, la bailan los asesinos,
El pueblo nunca la baila, unidos, jamás vencidos,
El pueblo nunca la baila, unidos, jamás vencidos!

La cumbia del campesino, la baila el pueblo unido,
La cumbia del campesino, la baila el pueblo unido,
Esa sí que la bailamos, porque estamos convencidos,
Esa sí que la bailamos, porque estamos convencidos,

¡Soberanía Alimentaria, queremos Reforma Agraria!
¡Soberanía Alimentaria, queremos Reforma Agraria!

¡Pasito por aquí, pasito por acá, queremos la Reforma Agraria Integral!
¡Pasito por aquí, pasito por acá, queremos la Reforma Agraria Integral!

The Peasants’ Cumbia

The cumbia of agribusiness, the murderers dance it,
The cumbia of agribusiness, the murderers dance it,
The people never dance it, united, never defeated,
The people never dance it, united, never defeated!

The cumbia of the peasants, the people dance it together,
The cumbia of the peasants, the people dance it together,
We dance that one, because we are determined,
We dance that one, because we are determined,

Food Sovereignty, we want Land Reform!
Food Sovereignty, we want Land Reform!

Step this way, step that way, we want Comprehensive Land Reform!
Step this way, step that way, we want Comprehensive Land Reform!

In the spotlight

Newsletter no 42 - Ten years of Nyéléni - Much to celebrate!

In the spotlight 1

Food Sovereignty at the forefront for a new system

Neoliberal policies have failed to achieve their promises of endless economic growth, while many real investments have lost their profitability. Now a new era of financialization and capital accumulation, characterized by the dematerialization of the real economy and mergers and acquisitions by TNCs, has led to an unprecedented market concentration focused on the enhancement of new R&D (Research and Development) and (bio)technology investments. They aim to extend the frontiers of capitalism to capture all the world’s biodiversity, lower the cost of food and labour, and restart a material economic expansion.

To achieve this objective, TNCs increasingly influence the UN system to receive favourable public policies and normative frameworks. The World Economic Forum and TNCs are trying to transform the UN institutions’ governance principles and practices through so-called “multi-stakeholder governance” and make it the domain of a small number of powerful private monopolies. The COVID pandemic has shed light on the power of TNCs, as in many countries large scale corporate food enterprises were financially supported while small-scale food producers went bankrupt and food and agricultural workers (many of them migrants) remained unemployed and therefore without access to food.

The food sovereignty movement – which mainstreams agroecology – can be at the forefront of an alternative way forward, offering a solution to restart material economic expansion while tackling climate change, and reshaping a new society based on egalitarian principles. Indeed, the FAO has recognized the role of small-scale food producers in feeding the world, and recognises their role at the core of solutions to mitigate and reverse climate change. Until now, all the solutions to mitigate climate change proposed by the corporate sector have failed to address underlying causes and have continued to allow the biggest polluters to continue heating our planet. Real solutions to stop climate change are rooted in peoples’ access to and control of land, seeds, and water and in the promotion of agroecology, the restoration of nature and landscapes that enable water retention.

Following the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996 – during which La Via Campesina launched the Food Sovereignty agenda and the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) was formed — it was at the Nyeleni Forum in 2007 where social movements gathered to agree on a common agenda for Food Sovereignty. In 2015 many of those same movements came together at the Nyeleni Forum for Agroecology, where a common definition of Agroecology was agreed in order to bring it into the mainstream of the United Nations. Now the food sovereignty movement through the IPC is calling for a new global summit which aims to connect the food sovereignty agenda with the other converging struggles for climate justice and system change, and which can demonstrate the real alternatives to the current food and economic system already in existence —alternatives based on agroecology and an economic system that includes territorial markets, direct relationships between producers and consumers, cooperatives and participatory community-led governance mechanisms and policies.

In the spotlight 2

Communication and the Urgency of Reporting on Food Sovereignty

To exercise your rights, you must know them. Alternative, popular, and community-based communication is key to this effort, as it entails social organizations and movements creating messages that strengthen their own narratives, without any intermediaries involved. They communicate the struggles, demands, complaints, ideas, and proposals for a dignified life directly from communities themselves, including calls for social, environmental, economic and gender equity.

Among the mainstream communications media monopolised by agribusinesses – who invest in million dollar advertising schemes whilst greenwashing their extractive projects that pollute soils and waterways – popular communication is forging its way.

Through blogs, social media messages and online video streaming, social, environmental, feminist, peasant, indigenous and Afro- organisations are experiencing a new boom in media appropriation, with new communication technologies becoming major allies.

An emblem of this new era is the collaboration between various organisations to build new communication channels and their own media. This unity in diversity, which we promote in order to advance a common political agenda, has its place in these transmedia platforms where the media hegemony can be challenged. In addition, there are audiences eager to see themselves reflected in these modern means of communication which have been built from the bottom up and from the political left, to inspire them and to help them find a cause they feel connected to.

Within the coverage of issues related to the development and practice of Food Sovereignty – be it articles, posters, reports, photo-reports or podcasts — it’s important to continue to share the stories that illustrate the emancipatory projects that are taking place around the world and that are facing political persecution, militarisation of the land and the imposition of agro-industrial technologies which are being incorrectly labelled as being ‘sustainable’.

In this capitalist and patriarchal world, women are the ones who suffer most from hunger and only 13% of them own land although paradoxically, they are responsible for 60% of global food production. Narratives on Food Sovereignty must feature women as the leading protagonists, showing the work they do and boosting their voices as political subjects of Agroecology.

Communicating what Food Sovereignty is and why its defence and its construction from the bottom up are important must be an integral part of movements’ strategies. Getting this message across is a central tool for effecting change, not an afterthought.

Voices from the field

Newsletter no 43 - Food sovereignty in a time of pandemic

Voices from the field 1

Agricultural and Food Workers

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground pages 8-12

During the pandemic, government authorities qualified agricultural and food workers as “essential workers”, meaning they had to continue to work in conditions where they were treated as expendable since employers often failed to provide adequate protective measures[1]. The work they do is essential; their health and lives, it seems, are not. This is true of workers in food supply chains who help feed the world – but who, paradoxically, are often least able to feed themselves as their wages or income are insufficient to ensure food security by obtaining sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. Risks are high in food and agricultural industries because of systemic weaknesses. Only 5% of the workers in agriculture have any access to a labour inspection system or legal protection of their health and safety rights. COVID-19 outbreaks at meat processing plants around the world provide the best illustration of the high risks and the price paid by meat workers in ensuring food supplies to markets, shops, supermarkets, canteens, restaurants, cafes and bars. Tens of thousands of workers in meat plants have caught the disease due to a combination of factors: poor employment practices often predominantly of migrant workers, poor and crowded working and health and safety conditions, and in some cases, poor living quarters.[2] The global meat processing industry is controlled by very few, large corporations with significant power over workers and governments. COVID-19 has put a spotlight on how companies are using their political clout to influence governments.[3] While huge profits are made and dividends are paid to shareholders, the pandemic is used to freeze wages and social protection benefits.

Further reading: COVID-19 and the impact on agriculture and food security

ILO instruments and tools in agriculture:

  • The Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129)
  • The Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11)
  • The Plantations Convention, 1958 (No. 110)
  • The Rural Workers’ Organizations Convention, 1975 (No. 141)
  • The Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (No. 184)
  • The Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202)
  • The Code of practice on safety and health in agriculture (2011)

Voices from the field 2

Peasants and Small Scale Family Farmers

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground pages 19-22

Peasant/small-scale family farmer organizations emphasize that the pandemic has revealed the unsustainability and inadequacies of the global food system controlled by big companies, and the inequalities and vulnerabilities it reproduces. Lockdown restrictions have been disproportionately affected peasants and their communities and the poor and working class most. States have taken advantage of the pandemic to exercise more authoritarian control over people. We are witnessing an increase in cases of expropriation of land and water resources, assassination of social leaders, as well as domestic violence against women. The pandemic is being used as an opportunity to push neoliberal, pro-corporate reforms in countries in all regions. Closures of territorial markets (farmers, weekly and village markets etc.) while keeping supermarkets open have had disastrous effects on small-scale producers’ livelihoods, and are not justified by safety requirements.

Peasant and family farmers have been in the forefront of putting in place solidarity initiatives and mechanisms for vulnerable people and communities. Peasant organizations organized campaigns to disseminate information on how to prevent contagion, called for measures to protect agricultural and food workers, and denounced violence against leaders and peoples, especially women. They have called for a radical transformation of food systems in the direction of greater equity and sustainability, and adequate public social policies and protection mechanisms for the vulnerable. These include domestic food production for domestic consumption; territorial markets with short supply chains and more effective links between rural and urban areas; agroecology; regulation of prices in favor of producers rather than intermediaries; producers’ access to and control over natural resources; support for family farmer and women’s associations and direct financing to their organizations; appropriate financial measures including lower interest rates on credit.

Voices from the field 3

Fisherfolk

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground pages 12-15

Millions of women and men are directly involved in small-scale fisheries including processing and marketing of fish and depend on fish as a healthy and affordable protein. Fisherfolks report that indiscriminate lockdowns demonstrated a pre-existing tendency to underplay the role of fish in food systems. Meanwhile social distancing measures and closing of local markets have stopped many small-scale fishers from going fishing. The “virus stigma” on wet markets where fresh fish is often sold also created problems. Women comprise 80–90% of the post-harvest sector, and work in close proximity in processing and retail facilities, putting them at higher risk for COVID-19. In processing plants worldwide, women tend to occupy temporary and lower-paid positions, do not have access to social protections after losing their jobs, are more likely to be laid off, and cannot defend their labor rights. Many migrant fishers were stranded on vessels or in harbors, unable to return home, living in cramped living conditions without adequate water or food. Meanwhile large scale offshore freezing vessels and those involved in fishmeal fisheries could continue their activities.

On the other hand, there are numerous examples of fisherfolks contributing to address food insecure populations in their communities. In Oaxaca, Mexico, local fishers contributed their time and boats to provide 50–60 tons per week of free seafood for their communities. In Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, they organized themselves to provide 100 parcels of food to the most needed.

Voices from the field 4

Indigenous Peoples

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground pages 16-18

Indigenous Peoples organisations have reported that COVID 19 deepened many of their pre-existing structural problems such as lack of basic infrastructure: water, electricity, paved roads. The pre-existing effects on Indigenous Peoples’ health due to pollution from mining in their territory make them more vulnerable to COVID 19 and it also exacerbates pre-existing injustice, discrimination, inequalities, violations of the right to food and nutrition, the right to health and other human rights. The loss of biodiversity and habitats where many Indigenous Peoples live generate the conditions for the development of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Indigenous Peoples’ main activities – subsistence agricultural production, small scale fishing, herding, and gathering – have all been impacted by lockdowns. In some places basic hygienic water and sanitation is not available in communities increasing their vulnerability. Faced with this situation, Indigenous Peoples have generated their own sanitary control initiatives, through ancestral or current practices.

Indigenous youth voices say, “the pandemic has revealed inequalities, discrimination, sectorization, class division and fundamentalisms” of dominant societies towards indigenous peoples.” Likewise, “acts of criminalization are seen when they defend their rights. That is also a pandemic”.

Looking towards the future, Indigenous Peoples are clear they will continue to promote food sovereignty, traditional sovereignty, guarantee decent housing, revive their forms of traditional health aid, promote actions to protect the elderly possessors of traditional knowledge with an anti-colonial approach and accountability. They must preserve community practices, traditional practices.

Voices from the field 5

Pastoralists

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground page 35

Pastoralist organisations in 12 countries of West Africa have recorded that COVID 19 is increasing multiples crises afflicting territories that were already heavily affected by the insecurity that has prevailed in the region for a number of years. Risks include the death of cattle due to the limitations on movements and seasonal migrations. Seasonal migration is a practice they have developed to address shocks. If they cannot practice it their whole range of resilience mechanisms will be threatened and we are likely to see a recurrence of famine leading to a break-down of families and massive exodus towards urban centers. Rural conflicts could increase and there will be a significant reduction in the offer of animal protein for the local populations. Other pastoralists from Iran and Mongolia are also facing impacts of lockdowns – Delayed seasonal migration could cause weight loss and illness in livestock due to rising temperatures in wintering grounds, as well as extra expenses for buying feed and water. Herders are not able to sell raw materials including wool, cashmere, as well as meat products as local markets, factories and tourism spots are all closed.

Voices from the field 6

Urban food insecure

Excerpted from Voices From the Ground pages 23-25

The incidence of COVID-19 infection is higher in cities than elsewhere, where socio-territorial inequalities in urban areas contribute significantly to existing inequities in access to adequate food. Those consumers who buy their food through supermarkets found supplies severely disrupted, especially in the early stages of COVID-19. In addition, there was an increase in the consumption of industrialized products, of low nutritional quality. One of the most relevant public food and nutrition security programs that has been discontinued in many cities is school feeding. An FAO survey shows that among cities responding to an electronic form 88% reported having suspended the offer of food to students. However, Community Supported Agriculture delivery to consumers has been authorised unilaterally in all countries, even where other forms of direct sales were stopped, mainly because the food is not packaged and is handled safely by producers.

Voices from the field 7

Women

Excerpted from Gender, covid-19 and food systems: impacts, community responses and feminist policy demands.

We believe that the right to food, food security and nutrition and food sovereignty will never be achieved without ensuring the full respect, protection and fulfilment of women’s rights and the dismantling of patriarchal, feudal and neoliberal power relations. We want to go beyond the universally agreed goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment, which does not explicitly assert the centrality of women’s rights, the recognition of our self- determination, autonomy and decision-making power in all the aspects of our lives and bodies, including the food we produce and consume. We recognize, in light of this pandemic, the need to deconstruct the dominant narrative on women who are very often portrayed as victims in need of anti-poverty policies and social assistance.

We believe that the current global food system builds on and perpetuates gender- based discrimination and the violation of women’s rights. In order to achieve a fair and equal society where women can fully enjoy their rights and self-determination, we must put at the center the alternative model of consumption and production founded on agroecology and the food sovereignty paradigm.

We believe that any policy demands must be grounded on key feminist principles such as gender justice, equality and equity, non-discrimination and intersectionality, participation and recognition.

Voices from the field 8

Youth

Excerpted from Youth demands for a radical transformation of our food systems.

Covid-19 and the responses of governments are having devastating impacts on young people and our communities around the globe. We are experiencing the combined impacts of an acute health crisis, a current and looming food crisis, and a climate crisis – all illustrative of wider systems crises.

In this time of multiple crises, Youth are facing several challenges. As markets fail, schools close, and jobs disappear, we see opportunities and our futures crumble away. However, we are not standing idly by. We, as a diverse community of Youth from around the globe, are active in developing solutions to the challenges facing our communities: we are organizing ourselves to continue providing food for our communities and caring for the elderly as well as our children; we are shortening the distance from producer to consumer; we are defending school feeding programs and local markets; we are rebuilding rural economies and territories, ensuring youth can stay and return in the country- side; we are caring for and healing the earth by growing nourishing food through agroecology; we are standing up to domestic violence against women and girls as well as racism, homophobia, xenophobia and the patriarchy; and, we are defending workers’ and migrants’ rights as well as the rights of rural people. We are also imagining new ways to organize the world: envisioning healthy, sustainable and dignified food systems, and taking steps towards achieving them.

[1] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25892&LangID=E

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/11/chaotic-and-crazy-meat-plants-around-the-world-struggle-with-virus-outbreaks

[3] https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/power-profits-and-pandemic