The European Declaration on Food Sovereignty: A Comprehensive Food Movement

Original / Published at the European Forum for Food Sovereignty 2011/08/21
Translation / Chang Sheng-han
Header image source / Nyeleni Europe 2011: European Forum for Food Sovereignty

The people of Europe are now experiencing the first "structural adjustment policy" their governments have imposed upon them, the kind of "structural adjustment" long forced upon other regions of the world, especially the Global South, for the sole purpose of rescuing capitalism and those who profit from it (private banks, investment groups and multinational corporations). All signs indicate that these anti-social policies will become even more severe and widespread in the near future. This first comprehensive mobilization condemning the economic and governance system has brought us into a creative and positive European social movement to confront the global agricultural model created by the capitalist system.

Under the control of a handful of multinational food corporations and a small group of giant retailers, the food system has been reduced to an agro-industrialized model designed to generate profit, and it has therefore completely failed to fulfill its obligations. Instead of striving to produce healthy, affordable and beneficial food for humanity, it focuses on producing things like agrofuels, animal feed and commodity crops. On the one hand, it inflicts enormous damage on the agriculture that farmers depend on for their livelihoods; on the other hand, it simultaneously promotes diets lacking fruits, vegetables and grains that are harmful to health.

This industrialized production model relies on fossil fuels and chemical inputs, and fails to recognize that resources are finite (such as land and water). It causes a massive loss of biodiversity, declining soil fertility and climate change, forces tens of thousands of people into this industry without recognizing their most basic rights, and worsens the working conditions of farmers and workers, especially migrants. It takes us away from a respectful and sustainable relationship with nature. The overexploitation of the Earth is the root cause of rural poverty and hunger for more than one billion people worldwide. In addition, industrialized production forces people to migrate, and the industrially produced food surplus is ultimately discarded or dumped in regions inside and outside the European market, destroying local food production systems.

This situation results from food, financial, trade and energy policies imposed by governments, the European Union (especially through the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP), multilateral financial institutions and multinational corporations, examples being policies such as deregulation and liberalization of agricultural markets and food speculation.

Changing this dysfunctional food system is only possible through a complete reorientation of food and agricultural policy and its implementation. Especially in Europe, redesigning the food system based on the principles of food sovereignty is crucial, and it must be done now.

More than 400 people from thirty-four European countries, from the Atlantic to the Urals and the Caucasus, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, along with international representatives of different social movement organizations and civil society organizations, gathered from August 16 to 21 in Krems, Austria, to take a step forward in the development of the European food sovereignty movement. Building on the 2007 Nyéléni Declaration, we established the Forum for Food Sovereignty and reaffirmed the international framework of food sovereignty: people have the right to democratically define their own food and agricultural systems, without harming other people or the environment.

Many experiences and practices based on food sovereignty already exist in many localities, regions and across Europe, and have proven that they can be applied.

Based on human rights, we share the same values. We want people to be able to move freely, not capital and goods to circulate freely, which destroys our livelihoods and forces many people to migrate. Our goal is cooperation and solidarity, not competition. We commit to reaffirming our democracy: all people should participate in all issues concerning the public interest and public decision-making, and jointly decide how we should organize our food systems. This requires the establishment of democratic systems and processes, free of violence and corporate power, and based on equal rights and gender equality, ultimately making it possible to abolish patriarchy.

Most of us are young people representing the future of our societies and our struggles. We will ensure that our energy and creativity make our social movements stronger. For this reason, we must be able to participate in food provision and be integrated into all structures and decision-making. We firmly believe that food sovereignty is not only a step toward changing our food and agricultural systems, but also a first step toward broader change in our societies. To this end, we commit to fighting for the following themes:

Changing food production and consumption

We are striving to achieve resilient food production systems that provide healthy and safe food for everyone in Europe, while also protecting biodiversity and natural resources and ensuring animal welfare. This requires ecological models of production and fishing, as well as the many small farmers, gardeners and small-scale fishers who produce food, because local production and local consumption are the backbone of the food system. We firmly oppose the use of genetically modified food, and we cultivate and breed diverse non-GMO seeds and livestock within the food system. We promote sustainable and diverse food cultures, especially the consumption of high-quality local and seasonal, non-highly processed food. This includes reducing the consumption of meat and animal by-products; animals should also be produced only locally and fed with local non-GMO feed. We want to re-embrace and promote knowledge of cooking and food processing through education and skills sharing.

Changing food distribution

We will strive to achieve decentralized food chains, promote diversified markets based on solidarity, fair prices and shortened supply chains, and strengthen producer-consumer relationships in local food networks to resist the massively expanding power of supermarkets. We want to provide people with building blocks to develop their own food distribution systems, enabling farmers to produce and process food for people in their communities; this also requires supporting food safety regulations for small farmers and local food infrastructure. We also want to ensure that the food produced can reach all people in society, including those with low incomes or no income.

Valuing and improving working and social conditions in the food and agricultural system

For all the women and men who produce food, seasonal laborers and migrant laborers, and other workers in processing, distribution and retail sectors, we will fight against the exploitation and degradation of working and social conditions. We are committed to establishing high-standard public policies that must respect social rights, with the use of public funds determined according to implementation. Society must give higher recognition to our food producers and laborers; for us, this includes a reasonable living wage. Our goal is to build a broad alliance for all people working in the food system.

Reaffirming the right to public goods

We oppose and fight against the commodification, financialization and patenting of our public goods, such as land, farmers' traditional seeds that can be saved, livestock breeding, fish stocks, trees and forests, water, the atmosphere and knowledge; their use should not be determined by markets and money. In using public resources, we must ensure the realization of human rights and gender equality, and regard the whole of society as one collective interest. We have the responsibility to use public goods in a sustainable way, respecting the rights of Mother Earth. Our public goods must be managed through collective, democratic and community-controlled approaches.

Changing the public policies that govern our food and agricultural systems

From local to national, from Europe to global, our struggle includes changing the public policies and governance structures that control our food systems, and delegitimizing corporate power. Public policies must be coherent and mutually reinforcing, and must promote and protect food systems and food cultures. Policies must be based on the right to food, eliminate hunger and poverty, ensure the satisfaction of basic human needs, and contribute to climate justice. We need a legal framework that guarantees stable and fair prices for food producers, promotes environmentally friendly agriculture, internalizes external costs into food prices, and implements land reform. These policies will enable Europe to have more farmers.

To achieve the above goals, policies must be designed with the help of research that carries public responsibility. They must ensure that speculation in food is prohibited, and that no harm is done to any existing local or regional food systems and food cultures; dumping or land grabbing, whether in Europe, Eastern Europe or the Global South, must not be allowed. To safeguard Europe's food sovereignty, we are committed to new agricultural, food, seed, energy and trade policies. These must include: a different Common Agricultural and Food Policy, the removal of EU biofuel regulations, and placing the governance of global agricultural trade under the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rather than the World Trade Organization (WTO).

We call on the people and social movement groups of Europe to join us now, to fight for our European food system and to build the food sovereignty movement!

For the original text please follow the link
Food Sovereignty in Europe Now!