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world. And yet, on this land peasants and indigenous families
and communities produce slightly less than half of the world’s
food. The most secure and efficient way to overcome hunger
around the world is to return the land to the peasants, the food
producers. Food sovereignty guarantees basic human rights, of
which the right to land and water is one of them. It defends the
needs of all who work the land and produce food, the farmers
and campesinos. It therefore calls for an integral agrarian reform.
Access to and control over productive resources such as land,
water, seeds and finance, is a critical part of an integral agrarian
reform which entails the democratization of land, and the crea-
tion of direct employment, housing and food production. This
should not be limited to the redistribution of land, but should
entail the ceding of full rights over lands. Such rights should also
recognize the legal rights of indigenous populations over their
territories, guarantee fishing communities’ access to and control
over fisheries and ecosystems, and ensure the right of access to
and control over livestock migration routes and pastures.
LVC is working to create local markets for farmers, as part of
food sovereignty. Many scholars recognize the importance of food
sovereignty as the only lasting alternative way to eliminate many
forms of hunger and reduce poverty through local economic
development. Food sovereignty achieves such development in
rural areas by creating and localizing circuits of production and
consumption, where family farmers sell their produce and buy
their necessities in local towns. This creates conditions for lasting
development through generating local employment and enabling
farmers to make a living. In contrast, if what farmers produce is
exported, fetching international market (low) prices, and almost
everything they buy is imported, all profits are extracted from the
local economy and contribute only to distant economic develop-
ment. Thus food sovereignty, with its emphasis on local markets
and economies, is essential to fighting hunger and poverty.
Some national governments have adopted food sovereignty
oriented policies and laws to promote a better life for peasants
and to correct food import deficits. Such policies have entailed
the recognition of peasant farming and the protection of peas-
ants from external market factors by protecting national markets
from dumping, hoarding and speculation by global corpora-
tions, and introducing systems to guarantee fair prices for
peasant food production. But subsidies paid to family farmers
to keep them on the land and support vibrant rural economies,
and subsidies that assist with soil conservation, the transition
to sustainable farming practices and direct marketing to local
consumers, are good. Some governments have reoriented their
agricultural research and extension systems to support farmer-
to-farmer agroecological innovation and sharing managed by
farmer organizations as the keystone to up-scaling agroecol-
ogy. Public awareness campaigns to support farm-to-city direct
marketing of ecological production through farmers’ markets,
linking rural and urban cooperatives, are critical.
The current debates on climate change effects, the food crisis and
the need to safeguard the planet against further destruction, either
through curbing greenhouse gas emissions or reverting from a
capitalist mode of agricultural production to food sovereignty, all
provide an opportune moment for family farming to amplify the
need for ecologically sound and sustainable agricultural practices.
Many studies have shown how the yields of improved varieties
continue to plateau under industrial agriculture, in some cases
declining with slight temperature changes common under climate
change. Thus, agricultural and food systems are confronted with
an ecological and environmental sustainability crisis to which
only food sovereignty provides a lasting solution. Food sover-
eignty has emerged as an alternative to the industrial food regime
and promotes and amplifies family farming. The declaration of
2014 as the International Year of Family Farming by the United
Nations is an opportunity to redirect agriculture towards a model
of food sovereignty which will generate employment, provide
healthy food and respect natural resources.
It is imperative that during this International Year of Family
Farming critical steps are taken and that commitment should
be mobilized so that policies to protect and to strengthen
peasant family farming might be implemented. Of the national
governments, we therefore demand that they:
• end resources grabbing: land, water and seeds
• promote policies which guarantee food sovereignty,
biodiversity and peasants’ seeds, and that they improve
access to land and water
• recognize peasant rights regarding the production,
reproduction and exchange of their traditional seeds,
guarantees of agrobiodiversity and peasants’ autonomy
• increase the support and public investments for peasant-
based production, and guarantee markets and equitable trade.
At international level, we urge governments to apply theGuidelines
on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and
Forests, and other key decisions from the Committee on World
Food Security, and that they adopt the UnitedNations Declaration
of Peasants’ Rights. Additionally, we urge that they implement
the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture, and that they end negotiations for any new
commercial agreements, particularly the Trans-Atlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership or the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
This year should be used to start a global redirection of
agriculture towards a model of food sovereignty which will
generate employment, provide healthy food and respect natural
resources. We call for the creation of an alliance between coun-
tryside and city, that it might revive the peasants’ dignity and
their great contribution to food production. We need important
political changes, both for our tables and for our fields.
Local communities increase awareness toward consumption of small grains
Image: Nelson Mudzingwa (ZIMSOFF)
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