The food sovereignty movement rises in Europe, Taiwan, China must step up too

Image source / Nyeleni Europe 2011: European Forum for Food Sovereignty

The earliest concept of "food sovereignty" was put forward by the organization La Via Campesina. Because they had long focused on poverty and food issues in developing countries, and openly debated this item at the 1996 World Food Summit, from that time on, this concept has become a major topic in international agricultural debate. Food sovereignty covers a range of areas, from opposing genetically modified foods, conserving traditional seeds, defending small farmers, national protection of local production, people's participation in and choices about agricultural consumption, to ensuring the rights of women farmers.

Food empires like the United States, by providing food aid to developing countries, promoting free trade in agricultural products, and advocating single, large-scale production, have gradually changed the global food system. Small farmers have been squeezed until they have almost no room to breathe, and consumers, because multinational food corporations have long forcefully indoctrinated people's dietary concepts and consumption patterns, have gradually faded in their memory of traditional food culture.

The United States subsidizes export agriculture to compete with poor countries, and the European Union has also spent 40% of the EU budget to subsidize the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), helping export-oriented agriculture and dumping large amounts of surplus cheap goods into poor countries. About 80% of the EU agricultural budget has gone into the pockets of large or wealthy European farmers, with only 20% allocated to the many small farmers of the EU. Because heavily subsidizing agriculture creates industrialized food production methods, it is not only unsustainable but also harmful to the environment, and at the same time destroys the living space of small farmers in poor countries.

Specifically, every country should have the right to freely choose agricultural policy tools, and can formulate relevant policies and strategies to protect local farmers and prohibit dumping; the people have the right to jointly decide how food should be produced and consumed in a sustainable way, without being controlled by multinational food corporations.

Latest developments in food sovereignty activities
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All information about food sovereignty
http://www.nyeleni.org/
http://fairdealfooduk.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/a-new-cap-the-european-movement-for-food-sovereignty/