FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR LATIN AMERICA

By Joao Pedro Stedile and - - Reprint | | Print |

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SAO PAOLO, Feb 13 2008 (IPS) - Almost the entire western world is at the mercy of agroindustrial capitalism, a system of depredation that does not respect nature, produces food with high levels of toxins that makes its consumers sick, and is a cause of climate change and global warming, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, a member of the Landless Farmers Movement (MST) and of Via Campesina Brazil. In this article, Stedile writes that the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, in association with Via Campesina International, is pushing for various agreements that would end this dependence and create a path towards food sovereignty. The first step was reorganising the teaching of agronomy to focus on new approaches to the production of healthful foods, with agro-ecological techniques that do not use agro-toxins. In the spirit of Latin America integration that is the inspiration of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), Latin America is building the scientific foundations needed to find a way to achieve food sovereignty for our peoples.

But it is also true that in the political struggle between governments and the economic and geopolitical interests, food has always been used as a weapon to make a people or a country and its government dependent. In the last fifty years, which have been characterised by the hegemony of US capital, Washington has systematically used food production as an instrument of domination. To achieve the latter, the US first offers food, whether as a donation or through long-term sales, which will in turn cause changes in food production and eventually create a dependence on US supplies. This has been the fate of tens of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is the old trick of giving fish to keep people from fishing.

Agroindustrial capitalism then assumes control of the means of production, inducing farmers to adopt its methods of large-scale intensive monoculture and the extensive use of mechanisation and poisons, also called agrotoxins.

Almost the entire western world is at the mercy of this type of agricultural exploitation, which has been given the friendly name the ‘Green Revolution’. In reality, this development was a counter-revolution that destroyed the independence of millions of farmers around the world, obliging them to buy agroindustrial inputs manufactured by US and European transnational companies.

In effect, agroindustrial capitalism is a system of depredation. It does not respect nature. It produces food with high levels of toxins that makes its consumers sick. Moreover, as has been verified in recent years, it is a cause of climate change and global warming. In many countries, including Brazil, livestock farming, along with automobile use, is the major cause of the pollution that causes global warming.

Many Latin American countries, and Venezuela in particular, have been victims of this approach. Because Venezuela had abundant oil resources, it accepted this agro-industrial dependence once it became a major petroleum producer. Today, after half a century of US domination, the results are plain to see: despite its great agrarian potential, Venezuela imports 85 percent of the food it consumes.

Aware of this situation, the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, in association with Via Campesina International, is pushing for various agreements that would end this dependence and create a path towards food sovereignty. The first step was reorganising the teaching of agronomy to focus on new approaches to the production of healthful foods, with agro-ecological techniques that do not use agro-toxins.

After a year of experimentation, with the participation of more than 200 young peasant farmers from across Latin America, Chavez recently signed a decree creating the Paulo Freire Agroecological Institute of Latin America, which will operate in the buildings of an expropriated farm in the town of Barinas. This revolutionary school will have among its students the children of peasant farmers from across Latin America whom it will make into agronomists trained to advance food sovereignty.

Similarly, a network for exchange and association among other agronomy schools in Latin America is being organised to tap into the experience of schools in Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Chile. And here in Brazil, the Landless Movement, a member of Via Campesina, is developing two basic initiatives. On the one hand, conventions with federal universities that share our interests, with which we have created four special agronomy courses for the children of peasants who are attending classes: one for each of the forms of biomass (or ecosystems) in Brazil. On the other hand, we are introducing one high-level and various medium- level courses in agroecology in association with the Federal University of Parana, which has operated for two years and is open to other countries of Latin America.

Thus, in the spirit of Latin America integration that is the inspiration of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) – a response to the failed Free-Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA) pushed by Washington – we are building the scientific foundations needed to find a way to achieve food sovereignty for our peoples. We know that only an alliance of peasant and environmental movements and popular governments can assure the production of all of the foods a people requires – food that is both healthful and obtained in a sustainable manner. This is the antithesis of global agroindustrial capitalism which pursues only profits, whatever the price, using any toxin necessary to carry on its extensive monoculture farming. This causes not only food dependence but also social and environmental damage. The fight will be long and hard, but we are certain that the people will understand what is at stake and that nature will take revenge on those who seek to exploit her for merely economic interests. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)