“If this Summit, convened by the United Nations (UN), goes on in the same way, whatever guidelines come out of it will most likely continue promoting the industrial food systems that have made people unwell,” warns Saúl Vicente from the International Indian Treaty Council. He was referring to the UN Food Systems Summit, scheduled for September 2021. Vicente added that…
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the Transnational Institute of the Netherlands (TNI) and the Crocevia International Centre launched a publication entitled: “Junk Agroecology: The corporate capture of agroecology for a partial ecological transition without social justice.” The aim of the report is to “influence the just ecological transition debate in a way that ensures that we don´t end up…
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…
