Agroecología y La Vía Campesina II. Las escuelas campesinas de agroecología y la formación de un sujeto sociohistórico y político

La masificación o escalamiento de la agroecología campesina y la construcción de la soberanía alimentaria requieren transformaciones profundas, que solo un sujeto político colectivo, crítico y consciente de sí mismo puede lograr. El movimiento campesino global La Vía Campesina (LVC), en su expresión en América Latina, la Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC), emplea la formación política y agroecológica como un dispositivo que facilita la emergencia de un sujeto sociohistórico y político: el campesinado agroecológico, diseñado para la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios en todo el mundo. En este ensayo se examinan las prácticas pedagógicas y filosóficas utilizadas en las escuelas y los procesos de formación agroecológica campesina de LVC y la CLOC, así como la forma en que se conjugan como dispositivo para la mediación territorial y pedagógico-educativa para la reterritorialización agroecológica.

LA CONTRIBUCIÓN DE LOS PROYECTOS POR UNA SOBERANÍA ALIMENTARIA AL DESARROLLO LOCAL SOSTENIBLE DE ALICANTE

La soberanía alimentaria es una concepción defendida y adoptada por los movimientos sociales del campo desde que la Vía Campesina, como movimiento internacionalista que agrupa a pequeños o medianos productores campesinos y trabajadores rurales, la dotara de contenido a partir del año 1996. La adhesión a la construcción de una soberanía alimentaria en Europa supone la práctica de experiencias territoriales asociadas a proyectos de producción y elaboración de productos agroecológicos desde un nuevo modelo de relación social, económica y ambiental sostenible en el territorio. En el caso de la provincia de Alicante (España) se han identificado diferentes proyectos familiares y/o personales que defienden los valores de una soberanía alimentaria. El resultado de estas acciones muestra la territorialización de unos proyectos que fomentan un desarrollo local sostenible en base a la integración de valores como la salud, la cercanía de las relaciones comerciales, las técnicas agroecológicas y la economía local y familiar en los territorios donde se implantan, si bien, la red no está consolidada. Los actores por una soberanía alimentaria echan en falta un mayor contexto colaborativo o de cooperación más dinámica, incluida con el sistema público, para que los cambios estructurales sirvan para la transformación colectiva de los territorios. Otro resultado de la investigación muestra que los proyectos para una soberanía alimentaria no se ubican al completo en el medio rural. Al contrario que en la mayoría de las experiencias en otros contextos territoriales, los productores agroecológicos de alimentos perecederos se ubican en aquellos intermedios o periurbanos de cercanía a los principales centros de consumo. En cambio, los elaboradores si se orientan a espacios eminentemente rurales y se alejan de esta disposición general, mostrando unos factores de localización diferente para fomentar el desarrollo local sostenible.

Hungry for Progress? Enacting Food Sovereignty

<p>This research builds upon and utilises an emerging field of food and development theory – food sovereignty – as it discusses possibilities for an alternative food system, where the production, distribution and consumption of food may be guided by principles that foster a holistic, ethical and sustainable approach. The theory of food sovereignty has grown from the writings of La Via Campesina (a global movement of food producers in the Global South) and offers critiques of the current food system, food security and corporate globalisation. As I grapple with the key principles of food sovereignty and explore the ways in which they are visible within Wellington, Aotearoa, I interact with five key organisations and present ways their actions foster a food sovereignty paradigm. By blending the theoretical with the practical, this thesis presents the lived experiences of people working in; Koanga Institute, Biofarm, Commonsense Organics, Workerbe and Kaibosh. Bringing together the perspectives of these five organisations with relevant literature, this thesis first discusses some potential market-based solutions for achieving ethical consumption. It then examines ideas around the move to ‘grow something’ as a tool for resistance, reclaiming spaces and healing; to finally explore the ways in which a more holistic approach to food can nurture spiritual connections in profound and unique ways. Hungry for Progress? Enacting Food Sovereignty is a qualitative research project that embraces notions of positionality and reflexivity and shares my journey of living this research. Through exploring the food sovereignty narratives and worldviews, I seek to promote empowerment among individuals and organisations through constructing knowledge that supports postcolonial, feminist and activist interactions so that good change in the food system (and beyond) may become a reality.</p>

Hungry for Progress? Enacting Food Sovereignty

<p>This research builds upon and utilises an emerging field of food and development theory – food sovereignty – as it discusses possibilities for an alternative food system, where the production, distribution and consumption of food may be guided by principles that foster a holistic, ethical and sustainable approach. The theory of food sovereignty has grown from the writings of La Via Campesina (a global movement of food producers in the Global South) and offers critiques of the current food system, food security and corporate globalisation. As I grapple with the key principles of food sovereignty and explore the ways in which they are visible within Wellington, Aotearoa, I interact with five key organisations and present ways their actions foster a food sovereignty paradigm. By blending the theoretical with the practical, this thesis presents the lived experiences of people working in; Koanga Institute, Biofarm, Commonsense Organics, Workerbe and Kaibosh. Bringing together the perspectives of these five organisations with relevant literature, this thesis first discusses some potential market-based solutions for achieving ethical consumption. It then examines ideas around the move to ‘grow something’ as a tool for resistance, reclaiming spaces and healing; to finally explore the ways in which a more holistic approach to food can nurture spiritual connections in profound and unique ways. Hungry for Progress? Enacting Food Sovereignty is a qualitative research project that embraces notions of positionality and reflexivity and shares my journey of living this research. Through exploring the food sovereignty narratives and worldviews, I seek to promote empowerment among individuals and organisations through constructing knowledge that supports postcolonial, feminist and activist interactions so that good change in the food system (and beyond) may become a reality.</p>

Politicizing Poverty

This chapter explains how poor-led political activism politicizes public discourse about poverty, as well as fosters the critical, political consciousness of people living in poverty. It shows how poor-led organizations and movements harness this collective consciousness to develop and advance more radical, pro-poor policies for poverty reduction and development. The chapter spotlights the work of urban slum dweller political mobilizations in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, especially Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and some of its founding member-groups; the piqueteros workers’ movement in Argentina; the landless rural movements in Latin America, particularly the MST in Brazil, its global spinoff, La Vía Campesina, and the rural empowerment group, Nijera Kori, in Bangladesh. These examples serve to show how poor groups politicize poverty both within public discourse and in the eyes of members of poor communities.

Peasants’ Transnational Mobilization for Food Sovereignty in La Vía Campesina

This paper examines how small farmers and landless rural workers have developed new modes of food activism at the transnational level. It explores in particular how the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina advocates and seeks to build – through the concept of the “food sovereignty” – an alternative frame for food production and distribution enabling communities and people to determine at the local/national level their own food systems. Based on a multi-sited fieldwork including participant observations and interviews with organizations’ members from three different countries involved in La Vía Campesina (France, Brazil and India), my study analyses the various and unstable definitions of the concept of “food sovereignty” in the movement. It examines the process of adding new meanings to its definition according to its circulation across different scales and specific cultural and geographical contexts, its attempted legal translations, and its local reconfigurations in sometimes nationalistic and protectionist ways. The aim is first to show how the demand for “food sovereignty” has emerged at the international level so as to reframe politically global food relations and compete with a more technical response to world hunger promoted by global institutions - the notion of “food security”. The paper then traces the various strategies used by La Vía Campesina’s activists to legitimize and promote their cause, trying to make small-scale farmers “visible” – both in international and national public arenas – and recognized as those assuming a leading role in food production throughout the world. Finally, it addresses the way the food sovereignty framework catalyzes social mobilization across borders by constituting transnational interests and provides to marginalized social agents in the countryside a conceptual frame for making sense of the process of dispossession from the means of production they have been undergoing since the early 1980s.

Forging Political Cadres for Re-Peasantization: Escuela de Acción Campesina (Spain)

Bolstering the political formation of agrarian organizations has become a priority for La Vía Campesina and the Food Sovereignty Movement. This paper addresses the Spanish case study of the Escuela de Acción Campesina (EAC)—(Peasant Action School), which is a tool for political formation in the Global North in which the philosophical and pedagogical principles of the “peasant pedagogies” of the Training Schools proposed by La Vía Campesina are put into practice within an agrarian organization in Spain and in alliance with the rest of the Spanish Food Sovereignty Movement. The study was carried out over the course of the 10 years of activist research, spanning the entire process for the construction and development of the EAC. Employing an ethnographic methodology, information was collected through participant observation, ethnographic interviews, a participatory workshop, and reviews of internal documents. The paper presents the context in which the EAC arose, its pedagogical dynamics, the structure and the ideological contents implemented for the training of new cadres, and how there are three key areas in the training process: (1) the strengthening of collective union and peasant identity, (2) training in the “peasant” ideological proposal, and (3) the integration of students as new cadres into the organizations’ structures. It is concluded that the EAC is a useful tool in the ideological re-peasantization process of these organizations.

La protección jurídica de la soberanía alimentaria de los pueblos indígenas

El objetivo de este estudio descriptivo es trazar la evolución histórica del marco de protección de los pueblos indígenas, principalmente el que constituye su derecho a los medios de subsistencia alimentaria. En un primer apartado se desarrollarán los diferentes Instrumentos Internacionales, Nacionales y Locales que protegen actualmente los Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos Indígenas. Terminando con una definición propuesta por la vía Campesina en la Cumbre Mundial sobre Alimentación de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (1996) de soberanía alimentaria.