Food Sovereignty

Language: English (Available in French and Spanish)

Content: For many years the CFS was a space that was neglected by governments as it had no impact on the world governance of agriculture, which states considered as resting more in the hands of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Then in 2009 the committee was reformed. This booklet focuses on this reform and its consequences for civil society.

Edition: La Via Campesina

KEYWORDS La Via Campesina; food sovereignty; food crisis; agrarian reform

Nature 479, 472–473 (24 November 2011)

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Simply giving people food is not enough to prevent famine, says Peter Rosset. Instead, we need to overhaul the policies that have upended the food supply.

We, women and men peasants, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and their allies, who gathered together in Nyeleni from 17-19 November 2011, are determined to defend food sovereignty, the commons and the rights of small scale food providers to natural resources.

Recent protests in North Africa and the Middle East have been linked in part to rising food prices, which hit a record in January, according to the United Nations.

ABSTRACT In the contemporary world we face a systemic crisis where multiple dimensions converge, including an economic crisis, a financial crisis, a climate crisis, an energy crisis, a food crisis, and runaway land grabbing. Peter Rosset argues for a paradigm shift toward food sovereignty based on genuine agrarian reform and sustainable peasant agriculture, which he sees as the only way to address the multiple crises.

KEYWORDS La Via Campesina; food sovereignty; food crisis; agrarian reform

For generations, the peoples of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) have practised locally-developed, diverse forms of agriculture and fisheries.