Food Sovereingty

Farming in Palestine, an essential activity for the national economy, was already suffering from military attacks and the Israeli blockade. The sector now faces further damages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government response measures, including lockdown. “Palestinian farmers are unable to access the necessary agricultural inputs, lands and markets due to the lockdown,” said Samar Khuzundar, an activist from…

Since the beginning of 2020, at least 103 social leaders and defenders of territories, and 24 former FARC members undergoing a reinsertion process in line with the Peace Accords, have been murdered in Colombia, according to local NGO Indepaz. The Continental Day for Democracy and against Neoliberalism (La Jornada Continental), which represents different social movements and organisations, denounced the government…

Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique, is suffering. The invasion of the transnational gas industry, attacks by extremist groups and military deployment from a government that seems to hate its people, are all creating a frightening breeding ground for murders, forced disappearances, the persecution of journalists and social activists and the displacement of peoples. In a context of extreme…

April 17, International Day of Peasants' Struggle, is a special day celebrated by rural organizations around the world, usually with demonstrations, conferences, demands addressed to governments, and other activities. But of course, this year, the COVID-19 pandemic is severely limiting the room for action. For this reason, the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina, which gathers local rural organizations at…

We invite you to listen to and share the interviews conducted by Real World Radio for the Nyéléni Newsletter, with Miriam Nobre, Carlos Marentes, Andoni García, Mercia Andrews and Roma Malik, leaders from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia who focus on agroecology, feminism and the struggle for peasant rights. The interviewees reflect on the links between new authoritarian discourses…

What challenges do the rise of neofascism and conservatism in Latin America pose to Food Sovereignty? The attempts by conservative sectors to return to the patriarchal family model are added to the dismantling of public policies that promote young people staying in the countryside, and the alliance between agribusiness, drug trafficking and militarization as constant threats to communities. Developing Food…

 “We will not achieve Food Sovereignty if we can't recover control over our communities and territories, if we can't take back control over food from the corporations”, warned peasant Carlos Marentes, a long-standing leader from La Vía Campesina. “This is a complicated struggle, it requires intense work. In the current political climate — of oligarchy and increasingly extreme conservatism, states…

In India there have been massive demonstrations against a new Citizenship Law that came into force in January, which grants nationality to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, except Muslims. In December, tens of people were murdered in the repression of mobilizations, and hundreds were arrested. Those who oppose the law affirm, among other things, that this is the first…

Andoni García, a farmer from the Basque Country and member of the Coordination Committee of La Vía Campesina Europe (ECVC) warned in an interview with Real World Radio about the use of “nationalist sentiment” in right-wing political discourses as a feature of the rising conservatism and fascism on the continent. Contrary to other European countries, “the Spanish government does not…

“We are the guardians of land, seeds, life and love" is the slogan of the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) of Southern Africa, a movement of rural women founded in 2009 with a membership of over 100 000 women, mainly farmers from South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Their focus is on the defense of the commons…