Via Campesina

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox organization Template:Rural society La Vía Campesina (from Template:Langx, meaning the peasant way) is an international farmers organization founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries,<ref name="Members" /> and describing itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe".<ref name=":1">"Global Small-Scale Farmers' Movement Developing New Trade Regimes", Food First News & Views, Volume 28, Number 97 Spring/Summer 2005, p. 2.</ref>

La Via Campesina advocates for family farm-based sustainable agriculture, and was the group that coined the term "food sovereignty".<ref name=":1" /> La Vía Campesina carries out campaigns to defend farmer's right to seeds, to stop violence against women, for agrarian reform, and generally for the recognition of the rights of peasants.<ref>Borras Jr., Saturnino M. "La Vía Campesina and its Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform.." Journal of Agrarian Change 8, no. 2/3 (April 2008): 258–289.</ref>

History

Background and approach

Template:Legend0

Starting in the 1980s governments were intervening less in the rural countryside, which weakened corporate control over peasants' organizations while making a living in agriculture become more difficult.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite journal</ref> As a result, national peasant groups began to form ties with transnational organizations, starting in Latin America and then on a global scale.<ref name=":5" />

The peasants' rights movement emerged from the new rights advocacy which had arisen in the 1990s; during that time, human rights and development agendas became integrated which expanded from political and civil rights to include social and economic rights.<ref name=":0" /> The agrarian peasants' movement moved to challenge the hegemonic ideology of neoliberalism in global economics and to find alternatives that would protect the rights of workers around the world.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In Europe, Via Campesina members participated the 2024 "tractorada" farm protests,<ref> Why are farmers protesting across the EU and what can the bloc do about it?</ref> when agricultural vehicles blocked main roads in Western Europe; it briefly allied with COPA-COGECA which they claimed represented major producers and suppliers of low-cost, widely sourced food. Such organizations may, some have said, be linked or financed by far right groups<ref>Politico:Ghosts of EU’s rightward future haunt nature law fight</ref> since they also advocate for less official interference in environmental and social areas such as worker-protection.<ref>Farmers’ protests in Europe and the deadend of neoliberalism</ref>

Relation to international entities

The organization was founded in 1993 by farmers organizations from Europe, Latin America, Asia, North America, Central America and Africa.<ref name=":2" /> The foundation followed the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), where the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Agreement on Agriculture and the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) were signed and approved.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite journal</ref> These agreements caused backlash from many people around the world for focusing on technical problems rather than the human right to access to food, especially for those living in the Global South.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Globalization was under way at this time, affecting many industries including agriculture.<ref name=":2" /> La Vía Campesina gave small farmers a platform to have their voices heard about how these changes were impacting their lives.<ref name=":2" />

The movement has grown and is now recognized as a part of the global dialogue on food and agriculture. It has presented in several international fora, such as:

Via Campesina has been involved in the negotiations<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in Rural areas, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Priorities

According to La Via Campesina's webpage, the movement's main issues are promoting food sovereignty; demanding agrarian reform; people's control over land, water, territories; resisting free-trade; promoting popular peasant feminism; upholding human rights, rights of migrant workers; promoting agroecology; promoting peasant seeds systems; increasing the participation of youth in agriculture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In recent years, the movement has placed greater emphasis on gender issues and women's rights, and strengthened its opposition to transnational corporations.<ref name=":5" /> It has also focused on gaining recognition for the discourse around food sovereignty, reclaiming the term "peasant" and recreating a shared peasant identity across national borders and cultures.<ref name=":5" /> La Vía Campesina also partners with other social movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to strengthen its international presence.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite journal</ref> Template:Quote box

Democratic decision-making is central to the mission of La Vía Campesina, and it has been dedicated to fair representation and engagement of all participants, making structural changes when necessary.<ref name=":7" /> The perspectives of people around the world are needed to assess and improve global food production and sovereignty.<ref name=":7" /> Part of this effort for equality among movement members is creating a shared peasant identity. The reclaiming of this identity has been called "re-peasantization".<ref>Welch, C., 2001. "Peasants and globalization in Latin America: a survey of recent literature". Paper presented at the XXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, 6–8 September, Washington, DC.</ref> According to Desmarais (2008), the term "peasant" in English has a connotation related to feudalism, but in other languages and contexts, the meaning is broader; campesino comes from the word campo, meaning "countryside", which ties the people to the land.<ref name=":7" /> This feudalist connotation is one reason why the organization chose not to translate its name into English.<ref name=":7" />

Awards

In November 2018, La Vía Campesina received the XV Navarra International Prize for Solidarity (Premio Internacional Navarra a la Solidaridad).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2018, the autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, which is entirely independent of any political or economic affiliation, was awarded the Lush Spring Prize Influence Award<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2015, the organization received an award from the Latin American Scientific Society for Agroecology (SOCLA Template:Webarchive) "in recognition of its example of tireless struggle in favor of agroecology and the rights of peasants, in carrying out its mission to take care of the earth, feed the world, conserve biodiversity and cool the planet, through its constant search for food sovereignty in Latin America."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, La Vía Campesina was awarded the International Human Rights Award by Global Exchange, in San Francisco.<ref>Global Exchange Human Rights Awards. Past Honorees. Retrieved from <Template:Cite web></ref>

Organization

Women member of Via Campesina during the 7th World Social Forum (Nairobi, 2007)

La Vía Campesina is a grassroots movement, with activism at the local and national level. Members come from 81 countries, organised into 9 regions.<ref name=":2" /> The International Coordinating Committee is represented by one man and one woman per region and one youth per continent, each elected by their respective region's member organisations.<ref name=":2" /> With about 182 local and national organisations as part of the movement, La Via Campesina represents an estimated 200 million farmers around the world.<ref name=":2" />

According to Michael Menser, La Via Campesina is an example of the success and expansion of transnational movements in regards to participatory democracy due to its organization model and adaptation to ensure fair representation.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Meetings

Representatives from each region meet at International Conferences roughly every four years. Past meetings were held in Mons in 1993, Tlaxcala City in 1996, Bangalore in 2000, São Paulo in 2004, Maputo in 2008, Jakarta in 2013, and Derio in 2017.<ref name=":3">La Via Campesina: International Peasant's Movement. Our Conferences. Published 11 April 2014. Retrieved from <http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/our-conferences-mainmenu-28 Template:Webarchive></ref> The international secretariat changes its central location every 4 years based on the decision made at the International Conference. Past locations were Belgium (1993Template:Ndash1996), Honduras (1997Template:Ndash2004), Indonesia (2005Template:Ndash2013) and Harare (2013Template:Ndash2021).<ref name=":3" />

Since November 2021, the secretariat has been in Bagnolet, France.<ref>La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe. Retrieved from <https://viacampesina.org/en/via-campesina-celebrates-its-political-transition-to-europe/</ref> The current General Coordinator is Morgan Ody, a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France, member of La Confédération paysanne and European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC).

Women's involvement

Gender was ignored as a consideration at the start of the movement. At the signing of the Managua DeclarationTemplate:Mdashthe precursor to La Vía CampesinaTemplate:Mdashall eight people present were men.<ref name=":6" /> Peasant women started to become more involved and pushing for women's rights at the International Conference in Tlaxcala in 1996.<ref name=":6" /> At this meeting, they decided to form a committee dedicated to women's rights and gender issues, which eventually became the Vía Campesina's Women's Commission.<ref name=":6" /> The women on the committee were also heavily involved in editing the draft of the cornerstone position on food sovereignty that was presented at the World Food Summit in 1996.<ref name=":6" /> They included health as a consideration for food production without agro-chemicals, as well as the importance of women's involvement in policy changes because women typically were barred from political involvement.<ref name=":6" /> The women of La Vía Campesina are still working for greater representation and engagement of peasant women, especially in leadership positions.

Food sovereignty

La Vía Campesina introduced the right of food sovereignty at the World Food Summit in 1996 as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems."<ref name=":2" /> The phrase "culturally appropriate" signifies that the food that is available and accessible for the population should fit with the cultural background of the people consuming it. For example, subsidised and imported wheat products would not fall under this category in a country where corn-based foods were the basis of traditional meals.

Issue Dominant model Food sovereignty
Trade Free trade in everything Food and agriculture exempt from trade agreements
Production priority Agroexports Food for local markets
Crop prices "What the market dictates" (leave the mechanisms that create both low crop prices and speculative food price hikes intact) Fair prices that cover costs of production and allow farmers and farm workers a life with dignity
Market access Access to foreign markets Access to local markets; an end to the displacement of farmers from their own markets by agribusiness
Subsidies While prohibited in the Third World, many subsidies are allowed in the US and Europe, but are paid only to the largest farmers Subsidies are OK that do not damage other countries via dumping (i.e. grant subsidies only to family farmers for direct marketing, price/ income support, soil conservation, conversion to sustainable farming, research, etc.)
Food Chiefly a commodity; in practice, this means processed, contaminated food that is full of fat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup and toxic residues A human right: specifically, should be healthy, nutritious, affordable, culturally appropriate, and locally produced
Being able to produce An option for the economically efficient A right of rural peoples
Hunger Due to low productivity Problem of access and distribution due to poverty and inequality
Food security Achieved by importing food Greatest when food production is in the hands of the hungry, or produced locally
Control over productive resources (land, water, forests) Privatized Under local community control
Access to land Via the market Via agrarian reform
Seeds Patentable commodity Common heritage of humanity, held in trust by rural communities and cultures; "no patents on life"
Rural credit and investment From private banks and corporations From the public sector, designed to support family agriculture
Dumping Not an issue Must be prohibited
Monopoly Not an issue The root of most problems
Overproduction No such thing, by definition Drives prices down and farmers into poverty; we need supply management policies in US and EU
Farming technology Industrial, monoculture, Green Revolution, chemical-intensive; uses GMOs Agroecology, sustainable farming, no GMOs
Farmers Anachronism, the inefficient will disappear Guardians of culture and crop germplasm; stewards of productive resources; repositories of knowledge; internal marker and building block of broad-based, inclusive economic development
Urban consumers Workers to be paid as little as possible Need living wages
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) The wave of the future Bad for health and the environment; an unnecessary technology
Source: Rosset (2003)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Food sovereignty vs. food security

Food sovereignty differs from food security. Food security was defined as "physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food... at all times to meet [the population's] dietary and food preferences for an active and healthy life" by D. Moyo at the American Society of International Law annual meeting in 2007.<ref>The Future of Food: Elements of Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa and Food Security Status in Africa, D. Moyo. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law). Vol. 101 ( 28–31 March 2007), pp. 103–108. Template:JSTOR</ref> Food security is more focused on the provision of food for all by whatever means necessary, whether by local production or global imports. As a result, economic policies concerned with food security typically emphasize industrial farming that can produce more food cheaper.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Food regimes

Friedmann defines a food regime as a "rule governed structure of production and consumption of food on a world scale".<ref name=":4" /> A food regime is marked by a period of transition in food production that results in significant social, political, and economic change.<ref name=":4" /> The current situation of global food production can be called the "corporate food regime" due to the concentration of supplying and processing food in the private sector.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> For example, US corporations have control over food production by subcontracting smaller farmers, which allows them to participate and profit without taking on the risks of farming, such as weather and disease.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Food regimes are the result of "political struggles among contending social groups" for control over how food production is framed and conceptualized, according to McMichael.<ref name=":4" /> The corporate food regime came about with the neoliberal economic theory which is motivated by efficiency and trade liberalization, and states that nations should focus their efforts and resources on producing goods and services where they have an advantage relative to other nations (that is, goods that they are best at producing), as cited by Philip McMichael.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref> The corporate food regime has existed for only the last 100 years, as compared to the millennia prior to industrialization and the Green Revolution.<ref name=":4" />

See also

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

Template:Green politics Template:Environmentalism Template:Authority control Template:Portal bar

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Via_Campesina&oldid=270161"