La souverainete alimentaire - en francais ici Δ
Via Campesina's Seven Principles of Food Sovereignty
Food sovereignty is a term originally coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996 as an alternative policy framework to food security. Unlike food security which is basically a technical question of providing adequate human nutrition, food sovereignty defends the right of farmers, eaters, and their communities to an economically just, culturally appropriate and ecologically sustainable food system under local democratic control.
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Uninformed Consent: What and Where, Too Much to Ask?
By: Debra Eschmeyer, Program Director, National Family Farm Coalition
April 25, 2007
During my last trip down the grocery freezer aisle, I chose the Breyers Low Fat Double-Churned, Extra Creamy Chocolate ice cream. I avoided the calorie count, but checked the ingredients: “genetically-modified fish ‘antifreeze’ proteins from the blood of ocean pout.”
Suddenly, I’m not so hungry. read more
20 Ways to Promote Local Food Sovereignty
For a list of things you can do at the community level, read more...
Agrofuels Trap
By: Laura Carlsen
Director, Americas Program, Mexico City
September 11, 2007
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4535
Agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage. Just this year, the number of declarations, dollars, and development plans that have gone to agrofuels are unparalleled in any other sector. An idea that languished for decades has suddenly become the darling of politicians, big business, international financiers, and the media.
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Natives Organize for a Better Food Future
By: Pencil Warrior
This column appeared June 12th, 2007 at www.opednews.com
Indeed, we live in strange times. For the first time in the history of humankind, most of our citizens could not raise, catch, hunt, gather, nor prepare a nutritious diet if their lives depended on it. Which they do. As if that alone were not a perilous enough prospect, observation of health trends suggests many couldn't care less. Against the hollow prospect of acquiring one's sustenance through a drive-up window, there stand those, steadily increasing in organization and activism, who value food as a defining element of their cultures and traditions. And, as my sister and I found out firsthand at the Native Foods Celebration and Retreat held in May at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, these folks are not giving it up without a fight. read more...
Nyélení 2007! –
Wisconsin Family Farm Defenders Travel to Mali, West Africa to Participate in Grassroots Food Sovereignty Forum
For Immediate Release:
Fri. Feb. 16th
Contact:
Before Sat. 2/17 John Kinsman 608-986-3815 John Peck 608-260-0900
After Sat. 2/17 Jessica Roe 202-543-5675 jroe@nffc.net
John Kinsman, a dairy farmer from La Valle and president of Family Farm Defenders, along with John Peck, executive director of FFD from Madison, will be leaving for Mali in West Africa next Tues., Feb. 20th, returning on March 1st, to attend an international forum hosted by Via Campesina on the topic of food sovereignty (www.nyeleni2007.org) Over 500 participants are expected from 90+ countries across the globe with close to 50 delegates invited to attend from Canada, U.S. and Mexico.
Prior to leaving for West Africa, Kinsman and Peck along with dozens of other farm and food activists from across the continent will be attending the winter meeting of the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, DC (www.nffc.net), culminating in a send off celebration for the North America Nyélení Delegation at the Busboy and Poets - 2021 14th St. NW in Washington, DC – beginning at 4:30 pm on Mon. Feb. 19th.
The Nyélení forum will occur in Sélingué, a small town located 140 km from Bamako near the border with Guinea in a specially constructed eco-village that will be used in the future as a training center by Malian organisations. Organizers chose the name Nyélení out of respect for a legendary farming heroine and to honor the dominant role women still play in agriculture today. Via Campesina hosted the first international food sovereignty forum back in 1996, and since then the concept has become increasingly accepted as a viable alternative to neoliberal globalization. Unlike food security, food sovereignty valorizes the principles of grassroots democracy, cultural diversity, social justice, and local control. It also asserts that healthy food is a basic human right, not just a market commodity.
In preparation for the Nyélení forum, Family Farm Defenders has produced a wide variety of materials promoting the concept of food sovereignty. These include a list of twenty things one can do at the local level in the U.S. for food sovereignty (www.familyfarmdefenders.org), as well as an updated 2007 edition of the Wisconsin local food and fair trade directory, published jointly with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and available for download free on their website (www.wnpj.org).
Both John Kinsman and John Peck will be available to share their perspectives on farmer to farmer solidarity and international food sovereignty at various community events and for the wider media upon their return from Mali, West Africa.
Food Sovereignty or Food Dependence?
By: Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer, Wonewoc, WI
Posted on Feb. 8, 2007 on Madison Indymedia (www.madisonindymedia.org)
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) documents 852 million people world-wide as being food insecure, with approximately 25,000 deaths due to starvation daily. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that 11% of US households are food insecure. The FAO states that “food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy life”. USDA defines food security as “access by all people at all times to enough nutritious food for an active healthy life”. What happened to “safe” food meeting peoples “food preferences”? Not important according to USDA. Not surprising either, in this society, profits are more important than people. read more...
Celebrate Food Sovereignty This Holiday Season!
By: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders
The holidays are when many people happily rediscover that there is still culture left in agriculture. A delicious homemade meal of traditional bioregional fare in a relaxed “slow food” atmosphere is often the highlight of any gathering among friends and family this time of year. In fact, it is almost hard to imagine Thanksgiving without turkey, wild rice, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie – all foods that have become a proud part of the culinary heritage of the Americas. What is sadly missing from many of our holiday celebrations, though, is a hearty affirmation of food sovereignty.
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In 2006 the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and Grassroots International collaborated to produce a brochure on food sovereignty featuring farmers' voices, including members of Family Farm Defenders.
To download the English version of this brochure visit: http://grassrootsonline.org/foodsovereignty.pdf
If you would rather have a copy mailed to you, please call our office #608-260-0900.
Coalition Meets on Food Sovereignty
La Crosse Tribune, published 8/1/06
By: Joe Orso
TOMAH, Wis. A rancher came from Montana. From Texas came an organizer for migrant farm workers. A
woman from a church in St. Louis came to learn about developing an urban community garden. They and about 50 others gathered this weekend at Cranberry Country Lodge in Tomah for the summer meeting of the National Family Farm Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based umbrella group for grassroots organizations that work on family farm issues. read more...
What is Food Sovereignty?
By: John E. Peck
Many people in the U.S., even activists who work closely on food/farm issues, are often unfamiliar with the concept of food sovereignty. Food security is a much more common term to describe work combating world hunger. Unfortunately, food security has also become a “Trojan Horse” for creeping corporatization of the global food system read more...
The USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS) - A Threat to Farmers, Consumers, Food Sovereignty, and Local Control
Tommy Thompson, outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary, remarked in his farewell speech in late 2004 that the U.S. food supply was in grave danger. He is right, though the threat may be closer to home than he realizes.read more...
For suggestions on what to do if your farm comes under government harrassment for failure to comply with various NAIS style measures read more...
The Struggle for Food Sovereignty and Rural Justice in East Timor
By: John E. Peck
In August 2005 I had the unique opportunity to participate in a sister city delegation to East Timor, a small island nation of about one million people north of Australia. Since Feb. 2001, Madison Wisconsin has enjoyed formal sister-city ties with Ainaro, a district capitol in Timor’s southern mountains. This grassroots solidarity relationship stretches back over a decade to 1992 when concerned Madison residents formed a local chapter of the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) to support the indigenous independence movement seeking to overthrow Indonesian occupation. When Portugal abandoned its colonial empire in 1975, Indonesia staged a brutal invasion of East Timor with the tacit approval of the United States, Britain, Australia and other western powers, leading to the genocide of close to a third of the nation’s people. In 1999 East Timor finally won its independence through a U.N. sponsored referendum but not after Indonesian troops and their paramilitaries committed mass atrocities and destroyed 70-80% of the nation’s infrastructure. For many Timorese, political independence remains bittersweet as long as the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity remain at large. .read more...
Food Should Be Left Off the Free Trade Table
José Bové, French activist, explains why his organization opposes WTO and genetically modified food. On April 6, 2005 Bové attended a workshop hosted by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. A full transcript of the conversation follows. read more...
Action Alerts
Defend Membership Control of Your Co-op
Plans are now afoot to gut Wisconsin's co-op law so that external investors can supercede the authority of co-op members, thus enabling more corporate control.
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Opinion Items
Our Cooperatives Are Doing Just Fine, Thank You
Wisconsin State Farmer, Nov. 4th, 2005
By Jim Goodman
Cooperatives have been a part of business in rural Wisconsin since they were incorporated under the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922. Cooperatives allowed farmers to join together to buy feed, seed and supplies; sell their milk, grain and livestock; protect their farms with fire, wind and crop insurance.
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