Network for the Earth - Altragricoltura, the food of rights
Disability Pride Network and Disability Care Workshops, 3-4.12.20
29th November 2020
The Good Hemp
7 December 2020
The Network for the Earth - Altragricoltura, Social Alliance for Food Sovereignty, it's a great community. Also Égalité and GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) rural and indigenous communities participate in protecting the rights of peasants. In connection with the movement La Campesina Via. Here because.
Rural communities, hunger and malnutrition
70% of the food of the planet derives from peasant agriculture, that is to say agriculture on a microscopic, small and medium scale. The rural population is made up of about 3,4 billion people who, however, in 80% of cases, live in conditions of extreme poverty. Paradoxically, those who produce our food do not have any for themselves. In spite of the FAO recommendations (2019) for supporting eco-agriculture.
Hunger and malnutrition have worsened, most recently, due to the global economic crisis triggered by Covid-19. Provoking a acute food crisis in at least 27 countries (FAO, 2020), whose first victims are children (v. The Lancet).
Social injustice and reconstruction
Gear Ratio State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, 13.7.29) e The parous state of poverty eradication (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, 6.7.20) expects to show that half of the global population today lives on less than US $ 5,5 a day.
Social injustice is the evil that afflicts humanity, Now more than ever. Covid-19 has demonstrated the failure of 'economist' theories who sacrificed public services - health, education, basic income and social assistance - in the name of privatization and budget cuts. Reconstruction must therefore start with the 'securing' of the weakest sections of the populations. By dedicating adequate resources even to the poorest countries, such as the European Union itself he insists on not doing.
Rights of peasants and rural communities, the UN declaration
The UN General Assembly voted, on 28.11.18, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Affirming fundamental human rights that specifically concern peasants and agricultural workers, but also rural communities. In six points:
1) adequate living conditions. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs) 1 and 2, eradicate extreme poverty and end hunger,
2) food sovereignty, that is to say, the right to have the necessary means of production so that each rural community can provide for its own livelihood. For the protection of biodiversity and fight against climate change,
3) protection against land grabbing (land grabbing), (2) adoption of structural agrarian reforms,
4) use of their own seeds, which farmers and workers must be able to store, use, exchange and market,
5) fair payment agricultural commodities and decent wages for workers.
6) social justice. The principle of all rights remains the fair distribution of resources.
Card rights
Responsible management of land, water resources and forests had already been the subject of specific international guidelines. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS), at the FAO, on 9.3.12, had thus laid the legal bases to counter the land grabbing on a planetary level. Only in theory unfortunately, since the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests it is in fact voluntary.
Investments in agriculture and agricultural systems they are in turn subject, at least in theory, to the 10 Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems adopted by the same Committee on World Food Security (CFS, FAO) the 15.10.14. From words to deeds, however, nothing has changed. Nor will it change until the countries of the world adopt one Constitution of the Earth and will undertake to respect it.
Network for the Earth, the food of rights
The agriculture of rights is the common thread of the Network for the Earth - Altragricoltura, in which, among others, Égalité and Great Italian Food Trade participate. We are not under the illusion of being able to overthrow in an instant the global agri-food system, still dominated by the globalization of exploitation and the planetary monopolies on pesticides and seeds (Big 4). Instead, we are determined to promote awareness and respect for rights, starting from the territories, with concrete actions.
In Italy, we are fighting for the adoption of a framework law for the protection and promotion ofpeasant agriculture. The social partners involved have broadly shared the text of the draft law, which however escapes the priorities of Parliament and government. The transposition of the EU directive 2019/633, to put an end to unfair trading practices.
Workers' rights and sustainable spending
The rights of workers in agriculture they are at the center of the initiatives of Altragricoltura - Rete della Terra. The rule of law continues to fail in its duties to protect laborers, who are often irregular and exploited beyond all dignity. With the tacit consent of the policy e of the great agricultural confederations, for their respective electoral and contributory interests.
Il caporalato in Europe - in Italy and Spain, above all - and exploitation in other production areas in every corner of the planet must therefore be fought with information. So that the consumers can become aware of thesocial impact of one's spending and impose a change, buying only the products that derive from fair and sustainable supply chains.
No Cap, Ciboprossimo, Iafua
Virtuous supply chains of the Network for the Earth follow the examples of the international association No Cap - for the fight against illegal hiring and exploitation in agriculture - and of Food next, a social project aimed at promoting the meeting between the protagonists of peasant eco-agriculture and consumers. So that the food of rights and its ethical choices are effectively available to everyone, in every territory.
Radio Iafua PerlaTerra gathers the voices of all of us, from the field to the table. To share stories, sufferings and problems to be faced, expectations and initiatives. With the aim of making everyone participate in the initiatives of farmers and fishermen who respect people and animals, ecosystems and territories, and encourage their development. With attention also to urban agriculture and beekeeping projects, the engines of social innovation and renewal. Under the banner of a culture based on the authentic values of food, the food of rights and health.
Altragricoltura, Network for the Earth, # Égalité!
Dario Dongo
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
