From 31 August to 4 September we are organising a Training and activism camp in Córdoba (Spain), where different people and collectives involved in the transformation of the agri-food model to move towards food sovereignty will participate. If you want to join, please sign up using the following form:
During the second half of 2023, between 1 July and 31 December, Spain will hold the Presidency of the European Union Council. In this context, on 4 and 5 September, the Agriculture Ministers of the EU will meet in Córdoba (Spain). And this leads us to make this appeal to tell them that we have had enough:
For a fair and sustainable agri-food model and a living rural world.
Food and peasant sovereignty NOW!
Faced with the Agriculture Ministers’ meeting on 4 September, we tell them that we are fed up with:
- The current agribusiness-based food model that does not respect labour and social rights and planetary boundaries.
- The food producers and consumers are subordinated to trade and agri-food policies that make them mere instruments of the food industry and distribution interests, placing people at the weakest links in the chain, without guaranteeing fair prices for those of us who work the land and consume that food.
- The right to food is not guaranteed to the entire population, especially to vulnerable groups, while a huge amount of food is wasted.
- The projects that have a high negative impact wich are drying up of aquifers and destroying the territory or poisoning us with pesticides because the global agro-industrial model takes advantage of underpaid labour, pollutes the soil and the water and sickens the people who work the land and eat their food.
- The EU neoliberal policies, a consequence of the Free Trade Agreements, which destroy food sovereignty and peasant agriculture in every corner of the planet, deregulating markets, speculating with food production, promoting globalized industrial agriculture and smashing the planet for the economic elites and food corporations benefit.
That is why we want to let the EU agriculture ministers know that we need:
- A radical change in public policies to support a food production model based on social, economic and environmental sustainability, guided by the principles of agroecology. We need agri-food production that prioritises the care of the people, the environment, the climate and animal welfare.
- We want more farmers in Europe, committed to family and sustainable models, with policies that facilitate intergenerational change and the incorporation of young people in agriculture, which keep our villages alive and conserve our ecosystems, as opposed to the industrial agriculture and animal farming model, which must be banned.
- Institutions should promote healthy, sustainable and agroecological food systems through public procurement.
- Policies should prioritise the defense of biodiversity and rural territory, and care for the people who live there,banning the expansion of industrial agriculture and animal farming, mining, fossil fuel projects, bad practices in the implementation of renewable energies and other macro-projects that threaten the integrity and sovereignty of the territory.
- Policies must support social environments, with inclusive food production and consumption that promote a feminist perspective and respect for the agricultural workers labour rights.
- A commitment to offering quality public services in rural areas.
- And, in short, the European institutions should promote healthy food environments that keep our towns and ecosystems alive, facilitating deliberative processes that will be strengthened from an informed and responsible society in order to face the challenges we raise here.
Join this Political Statement as an organisation, collective or experience of food production and consumption.
Get informed about the Training and Activism Camp Agenda, which will take place in Cordoba (Spain) from 31 August to 4 September.
Register for the Camp.
Córdoba (Spain), 31 August to 4 September 2023.
Complejo Rural Río Secreto (Hornachuelos) 30-35min from Córdoba city by transport.
This camp will work on two complementary axes: 1) strategies and techniques of non-violent direct action (NVDA) within the food movement, and 2) articulation of the food movement. Each of these axes has its own activities, whose aims are to increase the mobilization and activation of the agri-food movement in the forms of collective action and advocacy, as well as in the articulation of the organisations involved in the food sovereignty and agroecology movement. NVDA’s training activities will consist of various workshops on the theory and practice of actions, civil disobedience tactics, teamwork and legal issues. The articulation of organisations will be developed through future scenarios and the projection of collective strategies.
At the same time, we will have more relaxed (but full of intention and experience) moments such as the “Conversatories”: spaces for collective reflection and dialogue based on the presentation of some experiences and mobilization processes of the food sovereignty and agroecology movement. These are open spaces to all participants, in which we can share and discuss.
On Saturday, taking advantage of the Ecomercado de Córdoba, led by the agroecological producers of Córdoba, we will go to the city to meet them.
And on Monday, as a climax, we will take the opportunity that the EU Agriculture Ministers’ meeting will take place in Cordoba to tell them: THAT’S AS FAR AS WE’VE COME!
Agenda
Approximate timetable:: Morning (9-13h), Afternoon (17-21h), Conversatories (22:30)
- Morning: Arrival of the first participants.
- Afternoon: NVDA’s training activities.
- Evening: Conservatory on the food sovereignty and agroecology movement, environmental movement and protest repertoires.
- Morning: NVDA’s training activities.
- Afternoon: Scenarios for the future – organisations meet and create movement.
- Evening: Conservatory – Agri-food and environmental mobilization experiences in Spain and Europe.
- Visit to the Ecomercado de Córdoba: agroecological market, art, music, exhibitions.
- Afternoon: NVDA’s training activities.
- Evening: Conservatory – Agri-food and environmental mobilization experiences in Spain and Europe.
- Morning: Food sovereignty and agroecology movement Workshop: energies, capacity building, objectives, strategy.
- Afternoon: NVDA’s training activities.
- Morning: Demonstration in Cordoba – THAT’S AS FAR AS WE’VE COME!
WHO ARE WE?
We are organisations that are committed to a fair and sustainable agri-food model and a living rural world.
Supporting organisations
contact
If you have any questions or suggestions you can write to us at this email address: soberania.alimentaria@tierra.org
