Beyond Factory Farming

“Food Sovereignty is the Right of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labour, fishing, food and land policies, which are ecologically, socially, economically, and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies.”

The concept of food sovereignty was introduced into public debate at the 1996 World Food Summit. At the 2002 Rome NGO/CSO Forum for Food Sovereignty, La Via Campesina: the International Peasant Movement, along with more than 700 NGOs formulated a declaration for Food Sovereignty in response to the FAO World Food Summit and upcoming WTO Agreement on Agriculture negotiations to occur in Cancun in September 2003.

In February 2007 an international forum on food sovereignty, Nyéléni , was held in rural Mali. Over 500 delegates from around the world gathered to develop and support the international struggle for food sovereignty. The Declaration Of Nyéléni outlines the key concepts of food sovereignty, summarizes what we are fighting for, what we are fighting against, and how we can work together to achieve our goals.