Via Campesina

Background and approach Starting in the 1980s governments were intervening less in the rural countryside, which weakened corporate control over peasants' organizations while making a living in agriculture become more difficult. As a result, national peasant groups began to form ties with transnational organizations, starting in Latin America and then on a global scale. In Europe, Via Campesina members participated the 2024 "tractorada" farm protests, when agricultural vehicles blocked main roads in Western Europe; it briefly allied with COPA-COGECA which they claimed represented major producers and suppliers of low-cost, widely sourced food. Such organizations may, some have said, be linked or financed by far right groups since they also advocate for less official interference in environmental and social areas such as worker-protection. Relation to international entities The organization was founded in 1993 by farmers organizations from Europe, Latin America, Asia, North America, Central America and Africa. These agreements caused backlash from many people around the world for focusing on technical problems rather than the human right to access to food, especially for those living in the Global South. Globalization was under way at this time, affecting many industries including agriculture. • The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV); • The UN Human Rights Council (HRC); • The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Via Campesina has been involved in the negotiations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in Rural areas, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018. Priorities According to La Via Campesina's webpage, the movement's main issues are promoting food sovereignty; demanding agrarian reform; people's control over land, water, territories; resisting free-trade; promoting popular peasant feminism; upholding human rights, rights of migrant workers; promoting agroecology; promoting peasant seeds systems; increasing the participation of youth in agriculture. In recent years, the movement has placed greater emphasis on gender issues and women's rights, and strengthened its opposition to transnational corporations. Democratic decision-making is central to the mission of La Vía Campesina, and it has been dedicated to fair representation and engagement of all participants, making structural changes when necessary. According to Desmarais (2008), the term "peasant" in English has a connotation related to feudalism, but in other languages and contexts, the meaning is broader; campesino comes from the word campo, meaning "countryside", which ties the people to the land. In June 2018, the autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, which is entirely independent of any political or economic affiliation, was awarded the Lush Spring Prize Influence Award In 2015, the organization received an award from the Latin American Scientific Society for Agroecology (SOCLA ) "in recognition of its example of tireless struggle in favor of agroecology and the rights of peasants, in carrying out its mission to take care of the earth, feed the world, conserve biodiversity and cool the planet, through its constant search for food sovereignty in Latin America." In 2004, La Vía Campesina was awarded the International Human Rights Award by Global Exchange, in San Francisco. ==Organization==

(Nairobi, 2007) La Vía Campesina is a grassroots movement, with activism at the local and national level. Members come from 81 countries, organised into 9 regions. Meetings Representatives from each region meet at International Conferences roughly every four years. Past meetings were held in Mons in 1993, Tlaxcala City in 1996, Bangalore in 2000, São Paulo in 2004, Maputo in 2008, Jakarta in 2013, and Derio in 2017. The international secretariat changes its central location every 4 years based on the decision made at the International Conference. Past locations were Belgium (19931996), Honduras (19972004), Indonesia (20052013) and Harare (20132021). The current General Coordinator is Morgan Ody, a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France, member of La Confédération paysanne and European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC). Women's involvement Gender was ignored as a consideration at the start of the movement. At the signing of the Managua Declarationthe precursor to La Vía Campesinaall eight people present were men. Peasant women started to become more involved and pushing for women's rights at the International Conference in Tlaxcala in 1996. At this meeting, they decided to form a committee dedicated to women's rights and gender issues, which eventually became the Vía Campesina's Women's Commission. The women on the committee were also heavily involved in editing the draft of the cornerstone position on food sovereignty that was presented at the World Food Summit in 1996. They included health as a consideration for food production without agro-chemicals, as well as the importance of women's involvement in policy changes because women typically were barred from political involvement. The women of La Vía Campesina are still working for greater representation and engagement of peasant women, especially in leadership positions. ==Food sovereignty==

La Vía Campesina introduced the right of food sovereignty at the World Food Summit in 1996 as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems." Food security is more focused on the provision of food for all by whatever means necessary, whether by local production or global imports. As a result, economic policies concerned with food security typically emphasize industrial farming that can produce more food cheaper. Food regimes Friedmann defines a food regime as a "rule governed structure of production and consumption of food on a world scale". For example, US corporations have control over food production by subcontracting smaller farmers, which allows them to participate and profit without taking on the risks of farming, such as weather and disease. Food regimes are the result of "political struggles among contending social groups" for control over how food production is framed and conceptualized, according to McMichael. The corporate food regime has existed for only the last 100 years, as compared to the millennia prior to industrialization and the Green Revolution. ==See also==