Grassroots International blogs

Demise of Doha Negotiations a Cause for Celebration

2008-08-18T02:21:57+00:00

Grassroots International ally and grantee, the National Family Farm Coalition (a member of Grassroots' partner the Via Campesina ), celebrated the demise of the recent Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Grassroots supports the NFFC's and Via's demand for the WTO to "get out of agriculture" as this is imperative to realizing food sovereignty. The disastrous neoliberal trade policies pursued by the WTO benefit the "industrial agricultural complex" while harming family farmers, peasants and farm workers worldwide.

Read the NFFC's thoughts on the long-awaited end of the Doha negotiations on their website .

Dispatch from Haiti: "We are Forming Ourselves"

2008-08-14T02:03:53+00:00

"N'ap forme" are the first words that I hear after stepping into an open-air training center high in Haiti's Central Plateau after a nail-biting plane ride across the mountains in a four-seater Cessna. The training center is run by the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), a Grassroots International partner. N'ap forme is the Kreyol way of saying we are training, literally, we are forming ourselves.

Chavannes Jean Baptiste, the longtime leader of MPP and a fixture in the Haitian fight for resource rights, greets me as he would a member of his own family, even though it is the first time we have met face-to-face. The center is buzzing with activity – peasant leaders from all but two of Haiti's 10 departments have travelled long distances to bring their people's concerns to the table and figure out solutions to the root causes of economic hardship in their broken country.

I take long walks and motorcycle rides around the area, visiting some of the many projects that the MPP has pursued in their 35 years of organizing – during nearly half of which they have been a partner of Grassroots International. Even the land itself impresses me, with young forests and farms growing in what used to be a wasteland. Like much of Haiti today, the Papay region was so deforested that people were unable to live off the land and were defenseless in the face of natural disaster. Now Papay is rich with various fruit and forest cover, a humble paradise at the crossroads of hardship. A new friend from the MPP tells me, "It is us who have to undertake the work necessary to create such a place." His dream is to look out over the mountains in 10 years and see Haiti as it once was.

On the way to a local water source, where one of the projects supported by Grassroots International is in full swing, we stop to talk to the mayor. His Kreyol is thick and dense, but I understand the immediate importance of our solidarity with the community in conserving rainwater in this untypically arid corner of Haiti. Peasants come to work here, creating a sort of terracing with intricate rock walls in order to manage mountain runoffs. This allows rainwater to permanently pool, and fish are abundant. Trees are being planted everywhere. People tell me that while some international groups haphazardly plant random seeds, MPP agronomists are constantly studying which trees are native to Haiti and making every effort possible to recreate the natural landscape.

Back at the center, everything happens in the spirit of community and sustainability. We drink local coffee, eat from the plentiful gardens, and compost waste. Peasants grow vegetables in recycled tires and plastic tubes. Farmers come from far away to bring seedlings back to their lands that will both grow into trees and provide food for their families. A women's group busily harvests medicinal plants and a young people's group creates a new banana field. This is movement building and food sovereignty in action.

I join the training of peasant leaders for their afternoon meetings that run late into the night. Their analysis of the internal and external forces that plague Haiti is astonishing. We make lists on an old blackboard of macro-economic policies aimed at trade liberalization and privatization of resources that have sent Haiti on a downward spiral. It feels like one of my graduate-level seminars on the politics of globalization. The rain is so loud that we can barely hear one another. We huddle together and keep exploring – keep believing that another Haiti is possible. N'ap forme – We are forming ourselves.

Via Campesina Central America Appreciates Prompt Calls for Action

2008-08-13T01:10:09+00:00

"Life in Silin community in Honduras is coming back to normal," said Wendy Cruz, an advisor for Via Campesina Central America based in Honduras. In a telephone call yesterday, Cruz expressed gratitude for the prompt actions taken by allies: "Thanks for your support and solidarity. We received hundreds of emails and calls from friends worldwide. Your rapid response and caring gives strength to continue our struggle for land rights in Honduras."

According to Cruz, a local Human Rights Center is closely monitoring the safety of the remaining 300 families in the encampment, as fear of a backslash from landowners continues. In recent days, Rafael Alegría – a peasant leader of Honduras and member of the International Coordinating Committee of the Via Campesina – received death threats after a clash between the national police and peasant activists in the community of Silin left 11 dead and more injured. Due to pressure from the international community, the Honduran government sent a military squad to protect the area and avoid new confrontations.

The response from Grassroots International supporters and allies in the U.S. was fantastic. Activists sent more than 1,400 emails in the span of two days. Thanks for your promptness. With your support, we will continue joining peasants and indigenous people around the globe in the struggle for justice.

Support to Youth National Conference in Brazil

2008-08-06T04:42:38+00:00

Grassroots International is pleased to announce our support to Via Campesina-Brazil's Youth Collective. The Youth Collective is a broad coalition of rural and urban working class youth dedicated to support training and networking between young people organizing for social justice in Brazil. Via Campesina-Brazil, formed by seven peasant, indigenous, women and youth organizations, is leading several initiatives through the Youth Collective to educate young people about the impacts of neo-liberalism and globalization, empower new generations of organizers through learning exchange and establish new alliances with counterpart organizations in urban areas.

The Youth Collective is organizing its National Conference in the State University of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The First National Conference, Linking Urban and Rural Youth, is expected to gather 1,400 participants from 27 states of Brazil. Through the generosity of our donors, Grassroots International was able to make a small contribution to the empowerment of young people in Brazil.

Playing the Blame Game: Who is Behind the Food Crisis?

2008-07-25T01:37:28+00:00

Research presented in the Oakland Institute's recent publication "The Blame Game: Who is behind the World Food Crisis?" pokes holes through the myth that the "economic prosperity" experienced by an emerging minority in India has been a major contributor to the dramatic increase in global food prices.

The report challenges the messaging spin of the US State Department that both scapegoats the two largest emergent economies (India and China) for the surge in food prices and supports a neoconservative argument "that the economic boom has improved people's diets ... also helps generate the perception that the market friendly reforms initiated in India have contributed positively to the to uplifting of the poor and underprivileged. Data proves the contrary."

While several world leaders, including President Lula of Brazil and President Bush of the US, were quick to blame India and China's growing economies as the cause of the sharp increase in food prices, Grassroots International and our partners point to underlying long-term structural causes of the broken food system. For many years Grassroots International has been working with our partners in the Global South on resource rights (rights to land and water) and the right to food. We have learned from our partners and allies – mostly peasants and family farmers – that food sovereignty, or the local control of food production and consumption, is the most powerful way to address the food crisis.

I invite you to read "The Blame Game: Who is behind the World Food Crisis?" to learn more about how "growing hunger and poverty in India amidst plenty is emblematic of hunger worldwide [and how the crisis in food prices has been] manufactured by decades of neglect of agriculture in poor countries.".

Livelihood Rights: The Right to Exist

2008-07-11T02:47:12+00:00

Members of Grassroots International's partner La Via Campesina -- an international network of peasants, indigenous peoples, fishers, pastoralists, women, and youth -- gathered in late June in Jakarta, Indonesia to defend their right to exist, and called for a UN Convention on the Rights of Peasants. (Below, see their final declaration)

Under intense threat from the expansion of agro-fuels in South America and Indonesia, militarization in Colombia and South Korea, and increasing food prices, rural families are voicing a predicament that affects all communities.

The Via Campesina's message is a strong warning that rural communities are disappearing because of economic policies that disregard the Livelihood Rights of rural and urban communities. Livelihood rights are the right to the means of existence and reproduction of individuals and their communities - essentially at the core of the Right to Life and to a life with dignity.

The expansion of industrial agriculture and free trade policies are the major threats to the protection of peasants' way of life. They are destroying the cultures and economic bases of entire communities.

The violation of the human rights of peasants and indigenous people shows that this industrial food system is not only making us unhealthy (and changing the global climate), but also is perpetuating oppression and hunger.

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Final declaration of International Conference on Peasants' Rights:

In the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we peasants demand our own convention

Jakarta, 24 June 2008

We, the delegates of the small farmers, women and men, of the international movement La Via Campesina, coming from 26 different countries attended from 20 to 24 of June 2008 the International Conference on Peasant Rights in Jakarta, Indonesia. After seven years of intense discussions on the content and strategies, our spirits are high and full of confidence that we will achieve a UN convention on peasant rights. This convention will be one cornerstone to sustainable life for all human beings on our planet.

We peasants, women and men, landless people, agricultural workers, small- and medium-scale farmers, indigenous people and rural youth, represent almost half of the world population and are the backbone of the food system. The food crisis shows us the massive and systematic violations of peasant rights.

We are being increasingly and violently expelled from our lands and alienated from our sources of livelihoods. Mega development projects such as big plantations for agrofuels, large dams, infrastructure projects, industrial expansion, extractive industries and tourism have forcibly displaced our communities, and destroyed our lives. Many armed conflicts and wars are occurring in rural areas. Land grabbing and destruction of harvests are often being used as weapons against civilian rural populations.

We can not earn an income which allows us to live in dignity. A mix of national policies and international framework conditions are responsible for driving us to extinction. Noteworthy among these policies are the processes of privatization of land, which have led to a reconcentration of land ownership; the dismantling of rural public services and those that supported production and commercialization by small and medium producers; the fostering of highly capitalized and high-inputs agroexports; the push toward the liberalization of agricultural trade and toward policies of food security based on international commerce.

In many countries, we are losing our seeds at great speed, our agricultural knowledge is disappearing and we are being forced to buy seeds from Trans National Corporations (TNCs) in order to increase their profits. These companies are creating Genetically Modified Organisms and monoculture crops with the loss of many species and biodiversity in general.

In addition, we women peasants suffer from double marginalization: as peasants and as women. The responsibility of looking after the family is in our hands and the shortage and uncertainty of health care and education for the children make us work long hours for low wages. Women who work as laborers in the fields are being forced to use chemical fertilizers and are therefore at high risk for their health.

Moreover, violent oppression is a daily experience for us. Thousands of peasant leaders are arbitrarily arrested, detained, terrorized, tortured, killed and being criminalized because they rre fighting for their rights. We women peasants also suffer violence at the hands of our husbands, partners, or employers. Such violence can be physical or mental and even life threatening.

We have inherited a long history of peasant's struggles defending our rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the main human rights treaties are important instruments in our contemporary struggles. Nevertheless, we feel as other oppressed groups such as indigenous peoples, and women, that time has come to fully spell out our distinct individual and collective rights. It is time for food sovereignty. There are major gaps in the interpretation and implementation of the main human rights treaties when applied to peasants. Moreover, we face patterns of violations of our rights, by the crimes committed by TNCs and by Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In order to address these patterns of violations, we need specific provisions and mechanisms to fully protect our rights.

A future Convention on Peasant Rights will contain the values of the rights of peasants-and should particularly strengthen the rights of women peasants-which will have to be respected, protected and fulfilled by governments and international institutions.

For that purpose, we commit ourselves to developing a multi-level strategy; working simultaneously at the national, regional and international level for raising awareness, mobilizing support and building alliances with not only peasants, but rural workers, migrant workers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, fisher folks, environmentalists, women, legal experts, human rights, youth, faith-based communities, urban and consumers' organizations as well.

We will also seek the support of governments, parliaments and human rights institutions for developing the convention on peasant rights. We call FAO and IFAD to uphold their mandates by contributing to the protection of peasant rights. We ask FAO's department of legal affairs to compile all FAO instruments protecting peasant rights as a first step towards this purpose. We will bring our declaration on peasant rights to the UN Human Rights Council.

In the light of the threats posed by the current neoliberal-capitalist attack on local food systems and peasants, we call on all the people to join hands for the sake of humankind.

We call all our members and allies to rally for our Convention on Peasant Rights the next 10^th of December, on the 60^th anniversary of the UDHR.

Globalize the struggle, Globalize the hope!

A Crisis of Empty Promises

2008-06-06T18:14:15+00:00

Our partners in Guatemala have told us: the current food crisis will continue unless we guarantee the land, water and seeds rights of communities necessary to grow food. The same message is being echoed in Brazil, Mexico and many neighborhoods in the U.S.

In two separate statements, Guatemala's National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC) and Brazil's Small Producers Movement (MPA) put forth food sovereignty as a solution to the crisis: the right of communities to produce food for local markets and for consumers to have access to local healthy foods. Both organizations denounce the expansion of industrial agriculture and growing control of agribusinesses for contributing to the hunger of urban and rural communities.

CONIC's press release "Denying Production of Staple Foods for Local Consumption is Also an Act of Terrorism" and the MPA's open letter "We Want to Produce Food: Campaign Against Multinational Agribusinesses and In Defense of Peasant Agriculture" (both attached to this post) denounce the failures of economic policies that favor industrial agriculture and neglects rural families.

This week, policy makers tried to ignore those claims during an emergency meeting in Rome organized by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Governments and multilateral agencies continue to defend free trade policies and expansion of agro-fuels and industrialization of agriculture.

In an interesting article, the geographer Ariovaldo Umbelino questions if there is a food crisis or a crisis of empty neo-liberal promises. Indeed, this week's meeting in Rome was full of the same empty promises: Genetically modified seeds, agro-fuels and industrial agriculture. This formula will not guarantee a dignified future to peasants and indigenous people. Neither does industrial agriculture offer a healthy solution for consumers in urban areas. The experiences of working families in Ohio and Oaxaca bear similarities. Free trade policies and industrial agriculture represent empty dinner plates and lack of jobs.

As the food crisis creeps into our own neighborhoods, we hope that you'll join Grassroots in demanding a real solution – food sovereignty.

The World Food Crisis in the Palestinian Context: Rising Prices under Occupation and a Call to Action

2008-06-05T03:22:45+00:00

As the heads of states meet with the Secretary General in Rome this week to discuss world food security in the light of climate change and bioenergy, Palestinians are experiencing a different dimension of the food crisis. Food is of the most basic of all human rights, and in much of the Palestinian context, is being systematically denied to civilians.

Our partners in the West Bank and Gaza recently released a call to action, which we have reproduced here. We have also posted a copy of the open letter to the conference organizers referenced below.

The Center for Democracy and Workers Rights (DWRC) will be making a contribution to the High Level Conference on the World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy in the form of an open letter directed to the organizers of the conference, various heads of state who will be in attendance, and Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon. The conference was organized as a result of the recent thirty-fourth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Conference, held during November 2007, which called for a series of expert meetings and stakeholder consultations on climate change and bioenergy, to be followed by a High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

DWRC asks for your solidarity in bringing the particular circumstances of the food insecurity problem in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to the attention of the organizers of this conference, which will be held in Rome, Italy on the 3rd–5th of June, 2008. We are sure that you are well aware that world food insecurity in light of the impact of climate change may be one of the biggest challenges we face in this century. For Palestinians, global food insecurity challenges are further complicated by the affects of Israeli occupation.

Attached, you will find a copy of the open letter addressing the particular plight of the Palestinian people in regards to the consequences of the current global food crisis, including how Israeli occupation has shaped the food insecurity issue within the Palestinian Occupied Territories. We ask that you please help us through widespread distribution of this letter, posting it on your websites, or distributing it to your members.

DWRC is most appreciative of your efforts to bring further attention to the unique situation facing the Occupied Palestinian Territories within the framework of the consequences of the global food crisis.

Sincerely,
Dr. Hamdi Al Khawaja
Coordinator of GCAP -Palestine Coalition

International Water Warrior Maude Barlow Receives Canada's Highest Environmental Acheivement Award

2008-05-29T15:19:15+00:00

Maude Barlow – world-renowned water activist and author of Blue Gold – was recently awarded the Citation of Lifetime Achievement by the Canadian Environment Awards. Grassroots International was honored to have her as our keynote speaker for our 20th anniversary celebration, at which time we awarded her a global activist prize.

I'd like to take a minute to congratulate Maude, and to encourage you to read about her achievements over the past two decades. Thank you Maude for your inspiring leadership in the water justice movement and for struggling tirelessly (and joyfully) for water for all!

Food Riots, Food Rights, a Fast, and a Corporate Agribusiness Campaign: A Global People's State of Emergency Declared!

2008-05-24T03:18:59+00:00

Food Riots and a Fast

I have had the privilege of accompanying some of the largest and most dynamic social movements in Latin America over the course of my work at Grassroots International. In early 2001, we struggled with how to share the news of the agrarian reform and land rights struggles of our partners in Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean countries in ways that would resonate with folks here in the United States. What we came up with back then was to connect land rights with food rights.

More recently the right to food has been the daily bread of the news media as the sharp increase in food prices have resulted in food riots in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the US, the working poor are suffering hunger in silent resignation.

The director of the World Food Program (WFP) has said that high food prices are creating a "silent tsunami" threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

Our friend and colleague, Raj Patel, aptly pointed out "Indeed, it'd be far more convenient for the governments and aid agencies involved if the catastrophe of hunger and poverty were silent, and especially if the hungry didn't keep piping up with their own ideas about what they'd like to see happen. But they do, and their ideas are often at odds with those proposed by the development industry."

Not only are our farmer colleagues piping up, but so are many of our friends in the progressive faith community who have begun a 3-day fast to honor the 3 billion people who are going hungry. When asked why the fast they say "Our souls are angry. So much injustice and avoidable suffering pains us, harms our collective dignity. The few in positions of power have cast a deaf ear for too long to the people of the land; the people of the streets, a few have fattened their hearts in a time of slaughter... (James 5: 5)"

See the attached Word document for the full statement announcing the fast, or visit Agricultural Missions for additional details.

Protesting the Bunge Corporation

Some of our friends from Agricultural Missions who are going to be fasting in New York City also went to support our friends from the Rainforest Action Network outside the stockholders' meeting of the transnational agribusiness giant, the Bunge Corporation. This action is aimed at exposing Bunge for "disregarding human rights and the environment and charged that Bunge - whose profits reached a record high last quarter - is benefiting from the global food crisis, the use of slave labor in Brazil, and deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and the adjacent Cerrado."

Grassroots International has posted on our website the full statement of Judson Barros , representative of Brazilian organization, FUNAGUAS, that successfully sued Bunge in Brazil, who spoke out at the shareholders' meeting in New York this past week.

People's State of Emergency

Finally, a broad international alliance of social movements of farmers, fisherpeople, consumers, environmentalists, women's organizations and others from across the globe have declared a People's State of Emergency, and have issued a declaration entitled "No more Failures as Usual" in which the blame for the current food crisis is put squarely at the feet of governments and international institutions. Copies of the full statement are available in English, French and Spanish at www.nyeleni.eu/foodemergency

I am proud that Grassroots International has signed this declaration that will be presented to governments at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Crisis Summit in Rome June 2nd through 5th, 2008. Grassroots has endorsed the 3-day fast called for by the faith community and we invite our supporters to consider joining, in part or in whole, the 3-day fast from June 3rd through 5th, 2008 to support the People's Declaration of a State of Emergency and the recipe for change presented by the social movements and civil society groups.