Food Sovereignty

Agriculture and the degrowth movement

Bad labour conditions, unsustainable production processes, overconsumption and the conflict between need and greed are world wide seen as serious problems. One of the aspects of the degrowth movement is that it tries to work on alternative economic models and ways to organise society to solve some of those problems. Downscaling of production and consumption are presented as one of the solutions. This principle also applies to production and consumption of food and other agricultural products.
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(USA, 2004, Deborah Koons Garcia) What is more intimate, more universal than food? Are we still deciding ourselves what we eat when we buy products from the supermarket? There is a revolution … verder lezen

The French state and the large building company Vinci want to build a new airport to be able to pollute more and to increase the speed up oil depletion. And of course to make money. A lot of agriculture land will have to disappear for the project. To block this plan the area is been occupied by a large group of people who have started to build the land. By doing this they want to increase the local sustainable food production and create food sovereignty. Here you find a new call for action by the occupiers:

“A reoccupation action is being planned in case of an eviction at Notre-Dame-des-Landes in France: To re-plant and rebuild against the construction of the airport: Vinci get out! Not here, not Khimki*, not anywhere!

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This article is only available in Dutch. (If you want you can help us translating articles)

Voedselsoevereiniteit, voedsel in eigen hand

Hier volgt een artikel over voedselsoevereiniteit dat in februari 2011 is verschenen in de Buiten de Orde, het blad van de Vrije Bond. Op een aantal punten is de tekst geactualiseerd.

Eten is een eerste levensbehoefte en iedereen is daar dagelijks mee bezig. In Nederland is nog maar een klein percentage van de bevolking werkzaam in de landbouw, maar wereldwijd gaat het om  miljarden mensen. Zij zijn afhankelijk van de verkoop en consumptie van de voedselgewassen die ze op eigen stukje grond hebben geproduceerd. Maar hun positie wordt bedreigd.
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(USA, 2004, Deborah Koons Garcia) What is more intimate, more universal than food? Are we still deciding ourselves what we eat when we buy products from the supermarket? There is a revolution … verder lezen

Once every 10 years sustainable development is high on the agenda of the United Nations. This started in 1992 with the ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro. The international conferences on climate and on biodiversity were a result of that meeting. In the beginning is was actually quite promising. Unfortunately the influence of corporations has on those processes has increased since then. Environmental regulation were seen as a danger for their profit, while ‘green’ became a strategy to sell more products.

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Grote landbezetting in Andalusië als reactie op de crisis

[this article only exists in Dutch at the moment]

Hieronder vind je een artikel van de vakbond van landarbeiders SOC over de bezetting van de Somonte Finca in Andalusië. De schrijver die er een paar dagen bij was, was onder de indruk van het enthousiasme en overtuigingskracht van de landarbeiders. De SOC is van plan in de komende maanden meer land te bezetten, vooral grond van de publieke of militaire sector.

Dit is een goed voorbeeld van wat er aan acties allemaal mogelijk is in een regio die zeer sterk getroffen is door de crisis. De SOC roept op tot steun en solidariteit.

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Thursday April 17th, the international day of farmers struggles, the group Agrocrisis blocked a Cargill company firm in the harbour of Ghent, Belgium. Some 30 activists began the action at around 6h30 in the morning and lasted until after 5 p.m. During all that time, not one truck with soy could enter or leave the firm. Some activists had locked themselves with pipes and bicycle chains at the gate, so it was impossible to open the entrance without brute force. The staff of the firm, scared of bad publicity, chose therefore to let the activists occupy the gate and didn't ask the police to intervene.… verder lezen

In Paraguay, the Netherlands and Germany A SEED Europe is recording and showing video letters. In South America it is about the resistance against the production of soy and in the Europe the issue are the problems with the new mega pig-stables where the soy is used as feed. With project we want to exchange the experiences and ideas for alternatives between the many local citizen groups. (The rest of the text only exists in Dutch, but you can watch them here.)
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