The approaches being undertaken to promote food sovereignty in the US and within the North American region of Via Campesina (Mexico and Canada)

Background/Question/Methods

NFFC engages the public and policy makers on issues that affect both food producers and consumers. Agriculture is the most basic way humans interact with the ecological systems that support life on earth. It is also the basis of economic growth. The industrial model of food production is unsustainable and has caused vast environmental degradation and unraveled rural communities countrywide. Family farmers and fishers strive to be stewards of their environment, creating a healthy and sustainable place for their families and communities. 

In the midst of the global economic and a deepening rural crises among family farmers and fishers, NFFC is committed to enhancing the voices and presence of family farmers and fishers – their concerns and solutions – in the efforts to  change the way food is controlled in the U.S. and around the world. This need is urgent as the Obama administration mounts a free trade agenda that is devastating to farmers, producers, and peasants everywhere. Additionally, USDA's recent approval of genetically engineered alfalfa and partial approval of genetically engineered sugar beets, despite overwhelming public opposition, poses new threats. Meaningful regulations by USDA to implement the 2008 farm bill livestock rules, which shift power from corporate agribusiness to family farmers and ranchers, are directly threatened by the Republican leadership in Congress and a well financed corporate lobbying campaign.

Results/Conclusions

Approaches will include:

Policy solutions in the U.S. that promote food sovereignty instead of a free trade agenda based on exports fueled by exploitative labor practices and negative ecological impacts

Models and experiences that are working in each of our countries based on input from participants within the North American Via Campesina region expressing the voices and experiences of farmers, fishers and farm-workers.   

Farmer voices to confront the approval of new genetically engineered seeds in the US including GE alfalfa and sugar-beets that threaten biodiversity, ecology and the economic situation of family farmers.

Efforts to enforce anti-trust laws in the United States to curb excess corporate control in the food system that have national and international implications on seed, livestock, and dairy.