Youth!

Zimbabwe : Solidarity message for our brothers and sisters in Mali

Details: Published on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 20:35

(Harare, 22 February 2013) We, the African peasant youth, members of la Via Campesina, representing organisations from South Africa, Angola, The Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Zimbabwe, gathered here in Harare, Zimbabwe between the 21 and 22 February for our continental meeting of the African youth of la Via Campesina, wish to transmit our message of solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Mali offering them our support for the terrible situation in which the populations, particularly the youth, find themselves, as a result of territory issues in the north of Mali.

Special Resolution : We will continue farming on Japanese soil!

Details: Published on Friday, 02 March 2012 17:02

20th NOUMINREN Youth Conference

We hereby declare that we will continue farming on Japanese soil. Japan has good soil and nature that suits agriculture. Our ancestors have lived in harmony with land and nature and have developed and passed on food culture and tradition in each region.

Today under the globalized economy and liberalist policies, Free Trade Agreements such as FTAs, TPP and genpatsu (nuclear power plants) have been promoted. Did those policies make our livelihood better? The amount of imported food and agricultural products has increased, and invaded our diet. On the other hand, because the youth leave the rural areas leaving only old people in the villages, many farms have been abandoned that eventually led to the destruction of many rural areas. The youth disappear from rural areas and the youth who go to the cities are now facing high competition and forced to work in poorer working condition. Unemployment and temporary work are also threatening their future. The accident of nuclear power plant has dispersed radioactivity all over the world contaminating farmland, food, and our life. In this situation the whole society is about to fall apart and the farmers whose livelihood are rooted on the earth must speak out to the city people who left the earth, and together propose a future.

Japan: “We will continue farming on Japanese soil!”

Details: Published on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:25

NOUMINREN Youth held its 20th conference in Tokyo on February 11thand 12th this year. Approximately 100 people participated in the conference (the largest ever). For NOUMINREN, this conference was probably its most important in last 20 years as it was the first conference after 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plant accidents. All participants were eager to share and reflect on what they underwent after 3.11 and to use these understandings to overcome their concerns.

On the first day, a forum was held to discuss the issue Why we must continue farming on Japanese soil: Understanding how nuclear power plants and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will destroy us. In this forum, five panelists (three farmers, one food researcher, and one local community activist) presented their commitment to protect agriculture and food sovereignty of Japan.

The first panelist, Souhei Miura, reported that after the disaster and nuclear power plant accident, he evacuated to Chiba prefecture. However, he decided to go back to Fukushima to farm again. He said that “it is possible to produce safe food in Fukushima if we continue doing the checkups. Nuclear power plant accidents can happen anywhere in the world today, so why don’t I stay and farm in Fukushima, the prefecture I love the most.” This commitment moved many in the audience.

The 4th Southeast and East Asia Youth Assembly: We are the Youth, Food Sovereignty is Our Only Option

Details: Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 08:07

From 4-7 September 2011, 26 youth delegations from Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Timor Leste and Australia gathered in Sang Joo City, North Kyeongsang, South Korea for the 4th regional youth assembly. The assembly first started in Chiang Mai in 2007 and the aim of the assembly is to increase and strengthen the role and involvement of youth both in farming and in farmers’ organizations.

In almost every country, young people are disappearing from rural areas. In some countries like Japan and South Korea, the average ages of farmers are above 65 years old. Meanwhile, in other countries like Indonesia, Thailand or Cambodia, even if the number of young people who farm still remains significant, it is decreasing rapidly. Young people find it difficult to stay in agriculture for various reasons such as a lack of land to farm, land grabbing and cheap imported food due to free trade agreements that means that local farmers cannot receive a fair price for their products. The situation forces young people to leave rural areas to work in the city or become migrant workers.

Yoon Geum Sun, an ICC member from the Southeast and East Asia region, stated the importance of this youth assembly. Daring to dream for a better future for agriculture in this region as well as in the world is in the hands of the youth. Young people have a great spirit that enables them to bring about change and create a way out of the global multiple crises.

Declaration: La Via Campesina International Youth Coordination Meeting

Details: Published on Friday, 13 May 2011 09:21

We, the young men and women peasants and farmers of La Via Campesina, have met in Brech, France from March 14th to 16th, 2011 to organize ourselves, exchange with each other and build hope for young peasants and farmers everywhere. We have come from many different nationalities, cultures, religions and languages, but here we speak the same language and we come together with the same spirit of respect for mother earth and to defend our rights. Now we will continue to construct a global movement of youth who are working to promote Food Sovereignty in our local communities, our nations and around the world.

The youth of La Via Campesina are facing injustices of many kinds. From racism, illiteracy and poverty, to social and gender discrimination and loss of culture, we are immersed in a world of misinformation, manipulation and criminalization. Our struggle is one of great dimensions. As youth all over the world have been systematically displaced from the countryside, our food system has lost its integrity and legitimacy, polluting the land, poisoning our people and robbing us of our rural cultures. We, the young peasants and farmers of La Via Campesina, who are building ecological alternatives on our farms and in our countryside, are living in resistance to this system. We are building Food Sovereignty already in our lives, now we must continue to organize and build our movement.

Indonesia: Statement of Via Campesina Southeast-East Asia Youth on Climate Change

Details: Published on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 20:13

Jakarta, Indonesia - November 26

We, male and female young peasants representing 11 different organizations from 8 countries, are gathering together in Jakarta, Indonesia for the 3^rd Youth Assembly of Southeast-East Asia within La Via Campesina.

We, the La Via Campesina young peasants who are present here, want to raise our concerns regarding the global negotiations and the neoliberal agricultural policies being pushed by some governments as solutions to the climate change occurring around the world. We also want to propose solutions and alternatives that can address the issue of global warming from the youth perspective.

Declaration of La Vía Campesina International Youth Meeting

Details: Published on Saturday, 10 October 2009 05:02

Aldea Puy de Cinca, Aragon, Spain
24-30 September 2009
We, male and female youth peasants and farmers representing 9 different regions including Africa-1, Africa-2, Caribbean, Europe, Central America, North America, South America, South Asia and South East Asia, with different nationalities, communities, cultures, languages and religions, are meeting for the first *La Vía Campesina International Youth Camp* in Aldea Puy de Cinca, Aragon, Spain from September 24-30, 2009.

Reclaim the Fields, European Camp To Cultivate Alternatives

Details: Published on Friday, 31 July 2009 11:32

European Coordination Via Campesina

Reclaim the Fields

European Camp To Cultivate Alternatives,

30th of September - 4th of October 2009, Minerve (France)

Young people of European Coordination of Via Campesina are organizing an European camp to gather people who wish to settle in agriculture, who are young peasants, landless peasants and/or who want to recover food sovereignty.

The growing global crisis on farming, climate, energy, biodiversity and societies has a great impact on billions of people’s lives. This crisis is tightly linked to the replacement of sustainable small-scale farming by industrial and corporate ways of production and consumption. Just as numerous billions have been given to the banks over the last year, the support of governments for neo-liberal policies continue to annihilate small-scale farming and peasantry all over the world. These policies destroy ways of life which have proved to maintain a harmonious link between human beings and their environment. In Europe these driving forces almost bring small-scale farming and peasantry to the point of extinction by making it difficult for settled peasants to survive and for young farmers to settle.

La Via Campesina youth from South East and East Asia mobilise!

Details: Published on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 11:49

La Via Campesina - South East Asia and East Asia held it’s second youth assembly in Dili, Timor Leste on March 25-29, 2009. Youth leaders from Thailand, Indonesia, Philippine, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Timor Leste shared and discussed the youth situation and the role of youth in the country and our commitment to struggle for food sovereignty.

The youth spent a few days in Timor Leste where they lived and learnt from the community of Uma Kaduak village, district of Manatutu. There we Shared the local food, culture, and planted trees together for their future.

View the video

La Via Campesina Leads Struggle for Food Sovereignty at the European Social Forum

Details: Published on Wednesday, 24 September 2008 02:37

Real World Radio

The large international peasant network, Via Campesina, with presence in all the continents, has had a strong participation at the European Social Forum in Malmö, Sweden, as it has so far done in all the international meetings where it has coordinated with other social networks as part of their struggle for justice and food sovereignty.

Members of La Via Campesina from different countries participated on Saturday in direct actions against agrofuels in gas stations of Stat Oil corporation (from Norway) and British-Dutch corporation Shell in Malmö. They also participated in a massive demonstration that gathered 15,000 people who marched nearly ten kilometers for over three hours, in what has so far been the most important event of the European Social Forum.

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