Food Sovereignty Food Sovereignty

La Souverainete Alimentaire en francais ici

La Soberanía Alimentaria en espanol aqui

African Food/Farm Activists Tour Midwest

Spread Message of Food Sovereignty as the Solution to Africa's Hunger Crisis

By: John E. Peck, FFD executive director

While Bill Gates and others may be pushing patented biotech seeds and associated toxic agrochemicals as the "cure" for the current hunger crisis, grassroots voices from Africa are just as busy challenging the "Gene Revolution" and letting the world know that sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty constitute a much better alternative.

From Oct. 15th - 18th, 2009 Family Farm Defenders was proud to host two African food/farm activists whose visit to the U.S. was facilitated by the National Family Farm Coalition and Food & Water Watch. Josphat Ngonyo from Kenya is the founding Director of Africa Network for Animal Welfare and won the Eastern Africa Environmental Leadership Award in 2003. He also sits on Kenya's National Steering Committee responsible for wildlife conservation, is a member of the Global Task Force on Farm Animal Welfare and Trade, as well as an honorary warden with the Kenya Wildlife Services. Joining Josphat, was Seremos Kamuturaki, Chairman of the Ugandan Fisher’s and Fish Conservation Association (UFFCA) and advocate for sustainable fish production. Seremos is also the Vice President of the Agricultural Council of Uganda and Treasurer of the World Forum of Fishermen. When not fishing, his family also grows pineapples and bananas. To read more click here

In Praise of Peasants

By: Jim Goodman organic dairy farmer and activist from Wonewoc, WI and a WK Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow

Published April 17, 2009 by www.commondreams.org

On April 17, 1996 1,500 members of Brazil's MST, the Landless Peasants Movement, having been evicted from their farms two years earlier, marched to the state capitol in Para to demand a return of their land so they could again feed their families. Instead of meeting with government officials they were surrounded by police, who, using machine guns, killed 19 and seriously wounded 69. Farmers, peasants, the indigenous and the landless are entitled to land only until the government or the corporate interests find a better use for it. Read more click here

Via Campesina Statement to the UN General Assembly on The Global Food Crisis and the Right to Food - 4/6/09 in New York City

By Mr. Henry Saragih, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina

Dear Mr. Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr.President of the United Nations General Assembly, Chair of the High-Level Task Force on Food Security, Mr. Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Distinguished Delegates, and Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome this Interactive Thematic Dialogue in our global effort in responding to the food crisis. Our dialogue in this chamber is of particular importance for those of us who believe that humankind has the courage and ability to make global governance work for all. Indeed, the food crisis gives us all an opportunity to do something without delay. The food crisis poses a massive threat to humankind. Everyday, significant parts of society around the world suffer directly or indirectly because of the food crisis. La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement, has been working to address the situation globally, with our members in 70 countries—this figure includes over 200 million members worldwide. Given the nature of our movement, undoubtedly the situation of peasants was put high on our agenda. The role of the United Nations in making human rights mechanisms work is particularly important in this respect. I follow carefully how UN Special Rapporteur has progressively shifted the focus of the food crisis from a development-centered model to a rights based concept: a global food crisis is a threat to the right to adequate food. It was thus a historic moment when Mr. Olivier De Schutter emphasized this in the UN Human Rights Council’s session on the food crisis on May 22, 2008. To read more, click here.

Food is Different

By Jim Goodman, organic dairy farmer, Wonewoc, WI

Food is an important part of most Holiday celebrations, not just because we need food to live, but, food connects us to our culture, our past and whether we know it or not, our future. Food Is Different: Why the WTO Should Get Out of Agriculture, a great book by Peter Rosset a book everyone who cares about food should read. The book is dedicated to Lee Kyung Hae, the Korean farmer who took his life in protest against the World Trade Organization (WTO) on September 16, 2003 at the WTO protest march in Cancun Mexico. read more

You Are What You Eat:

The Food Sovereignty Struggle within the Larger Global Justice Movement

by: John E. Peck, executive director, Family Farm Defenders

This article appeared in three parts in the Sustainable Times (July-Sept. 2008)

I have a button that says: If You Are What You Eat, Then I'm Fast, Cheap, and Easy. While this quip is somewhat sarcastic, for many people it is all too true. Whether due to marketing hype, or out of sheer convenience, lots of normally "smart" folks fall down when it comes to choosing what they put in their mouths. The personal is political and this is reflected each time someone votes for "business as usual" by giving their money to a fastfood chain or bigbox retailer. The result is a broken food/farm system that is now abusing animals, exploiting workers, perverting biodiversity, undermining democracy, jeopardizing health, and destroying the planet. If we believe another world is possible, then we need to radically transform our own daily behavior, and this means including food sovereignty as part of our thinking, organizing, and eating. read more

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. read more...

Meat, Free Trade and Democracy

Friday, June 20, 2008 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)

by: Jane Anne Morris

In the spring of 2008, tens of thousands of South Koreans held candlelight vigils every day for over a month to protest being forced to accept beef from the United States. The U.S. government claims that barring our beef is an illegal "trade barrier." This isn't the first time the U.S. has resorted to international bullying to force people to take our meat. In 1996, the European Union (EU) banned imports of U.S. artificial hormone-fed beef for public health reasons. A challenge from the U.S. convinced the World Trade Organization (WTO) to brand the EU policy a "free trade" violation. You've got to wonder what those South Koreans think might be wrong with U.S. beef. (I'll give it away: It is a justified fear that the U.S. does not take sufficient precautions against "mad cow disease" -- think "downers.") But my concern here is not the meat but the mechanism. read more

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. read more

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. read more...

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...