Via Campesina

Via Campesina (La Via Campesina) is an international peasant movement. Their members are in 56 countries located in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. It was formed in 1993 in Mons, Belgium and is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia.


 * Nettie Wiebe - council member

Objective
Their objective is to develop solidary among small farmer organizations in order to promote gender equality and social justice. They are concerned with the preservation of land, water, seeds, and food sovereignty.

Positions
They support the World Social Forum and oppose the World Trade Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Free trade.

Food Sovereignty
Via Campesina coined the term "Food Sovereignty" in 1996, defined as the "right of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems, in contrast to having food largely subject to market forces."

The Seven Principles Of Food Sovereignty are:


 * 1. Food: A Basic Human Right


 * Everyone must have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain a healthy life with full human dignity. Each nation should declare that access to food is a constitutional right and guarantee the development of the primary sector to ensure the concrete realization of this fundamental right.


 * 2. Agrarian Reform


 * A genuine agrarian reform is necessary which gives landless and farming people — especially women — ownership and control of the land they work and returns territories to indigenous peoples. The right to land must be free of discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, race, social class or ideology; the land belongs to those who work it.


 * 3. Protecting Natural Resources


 * Food Sovereignty entails the sustainable care and use of natural resources, especially land, water, and seeds and livestock breeds. The people who work the land must have the right to practice sustainable management of natural resources and to conserve biodiversity free of restrictive intellectual property rights. This can only be done from a sound economic basis with security of tenure, healthy soils and reduced use of agro-chemicals.


 * 4. Reorganizing Food Trade


 * Food is first and foremost a source of nutrition and only secondarily an item of trade. National agricultural policies must prioritize production for domestic consumption and food self-sufficiency. Food imports must not displace local production nor depress prices.


 * 5. Ending the Globalization of Hunger


 * Food Sovereignty is undermined by multilateral institutions and by speculative capital. The growing control of multinational corporations over agricultural policies has been facilitated by the economic policies of multilateral organizations such as the WTO, World Bank and the IMF. Regulation and taxation of speculative capital and a strictly enforced Code of Conduct for TNCs is therefore needed.


 * 6. Social Peace


 * Everyone has the right to be free from violence. Food must not be used as a weapon. Increasing levels of poverty and marginalization in the countryside, along with the growing oppression of ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, aggravate situations of injustice and hopelessness. The ongoing displacement, forced urbanization, repression and increasing incidence of racism of smallholder farmers cannot be tolerated.


 * 7. Democratic control


 * Smallholder farmers must have direct input into formulating agricultural policies at all levels. The United Nations and related organizations will have to undergo a process of democratization to enable this to become a reality. Everyone has the right to honest, accurate information and open and democratic decision-making. These rights form the basis of good governance, accountability and equal participation in economic, political and social life, free from all forms of discrimination. Rural women, in particular, must be granted direct and active decisionmaking on food and rural issues.

Contact details
Jl. Mampang Prapatan XIV No. 5 Jakarta Selatan DKI Jakarta Indonesia 12790 Phone: +62-21-7991890 Fax: +62-21-7993426 Web: http://viacampesina.org

External articles
"Armed Militia Attacks Via Campesina Encampment and Kills Activist", MST, October 23, 2007.

External resources

 * Article on Via Campesina, Wikipedia, accessed November, 2007.
 * Article on Food Sovereignty, Wikipedia, accessed September 2011.