Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

food security and food sovereignty: production, development, trade
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she explained, are beginning “to see that we do have common ground, common
problems, and increasingly, we are aware that we have common solutions.” She noted
the encouraging signs of strong and growing social movements throughout Latin
America, including national movements of peasants and indigenous people in several
countries; Lula’s rise to power in Brazil; and massive international mobilizations
against the current free trade agenda as seen at
the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in
Quito, Ecuador in 2002, and the World Trade
Organization meeting in Cancún, Mexico, in
2003. Dawkins described how an increasing
political will to fight trade liberalization has
emerged in recent years. New coalitions are
forming within regions such as Latin America
and between large developing countries
throughout the world. Particularly with Lula’s
leadership, these coalitions are now coming
together to block the United States and
European Union from achieving their trade
agendas – a remarkable feat.
Flores spoke about Vía Campesina, the international movement in which farmers
Minor Sinclair. Photographer: Steve Taylor.
and peasants from throughout the world come together in meetings and protests to
construct common platforms to promote food sovereignty by acting within their own
countries and on a global scale. He said, “In this globalized world, Vía Campesina
says, ‘Let us globalize the struggle; let us globalize hope.’” (“En este mundo globalisado,
la Vía Campesina decimos, ‘Globalisemos la lucha; globalisemos la esperanza.’”)
Flores also told of how Mexican campesinos are reacting to their government’s free
trade and agrarian agendas. In January 2003, 100,000 campesinos marched in the
streets of the capital, and the government began to negotiate with them, though the
final agreement was unsatisfactory to the campesinos.
Calls for Reform
The panelists all recommended policy changes at national and international levels.
Dawkins and Sinclair agreed on several needed changes in international
trade policy: a ban on dumping of food products at costs below the costs of
production; policies to manage the global supply of various commodities, in
order to avoid the price drops that result from overproduction; price floors
below which food prices are not allowed to drop; and antitrust policies at
national and regional levels to prevent corporate monopolies over the food
trade. Flores called for basic food crops such as corn, beans, wheat, and rice
to be removed from free trade agreements.
“While there is hunger, there
exists an overproduction of
food. So hunger in the world is
not the consequence of natural
or technical problems. It is the
result of an inequitable distribution
of power and wealth,
and of agricultural policies that
exclude campesino and family
agriculture.”
– Alberto Gómez Flores
“We are a group of survivors
who refuse to disappear. We
are campesinos, and we are
proud to be campesinos.We
want to continue to be.”
– Alberto Gómez Flores
Kristin Dawkins.
Photographer: Steve Taylor.
“I think this is a sea change in
the history of trade politics and
global politics generally . . . It’s
often presented as if these are
impossible technicalities, globalization
is here to stay, the
kind of globalization that we
all oppose is unavoidable, and
so forth. I firmly disagree with
this; it’s about political will. It’s
also about economic power
and the capacity to fight back
economically in the geopolitical
framework, and it’s also about
coalition-building, North to
South.”
– Kristin Dawkins
yale school of forestry & environmental studies