Nepal, ANPFa celebrate the Global day of Peasants struggles
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- Published on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 02:37
Interaction program held in Kathmandu to mark the Global Day of Peasant Struggle
On April 17, 2013, All Nepal Peasants' Federation (ANPFa), member of international peasant movement (La Via Campesina) organized a special program on the occasion of Global Day of Peasant Struggle. An interaction program was organized in Headquarter of ANPFa in Kathmandu to mark the day and pay tributes to all late Martyrs who sacrificed their life defending peasants' rights. April 17 is the International Day of Peasant Struggle, commemorating the massacre of 19 peasants struggling for land and justice in Brazil in 1996. Every year on that day actions take place around the world in defence of peasants and small-scale farmers struggling for their rights. Member of La via Campesina around the world Mark this special day organizing various program in memory of the Martyrs.
The program chaired by the treasure of ANPFa, Sarada Prasad Subedi started with one minute silent paying tribute and homage to the Martyrs. Similarly Com. Bamdev Gautam president of ANPFa, General Secretary com. Prem Dangal, Deputy General Secretary Com. Balram Banskota and standing committee member Dr. Keshab Khadka were speakers who addressed the gathering. Peasant leaders, members of right to food and food sovereignty groups, ANPFa leaders from the Kathmandu valley including youth and women peasants were present in this program.
Europe : Land concentration and land grabbing occurring and reaching blatant levels
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- Published on Friday, 19 April 2013 09:18
Press Release of the European Coordination Via Campesina
(17th of April 2013, Fuerteventura) Land concentration and land grabbing do not occur only in developing countries in the South; in fact, both are underway in Europe today. A new report by European Coordination Via Campesina and Hands off the Land network shows that land grabbing and access to land are a critical issues today in Europe, and also reveals that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidy scheme and other policies is implicated in a variety of ways.
The report, involving 25 authors from 11 countries and titled Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe, reveals the hidden scandal of how just three per cent of landowners have come to control half of all farmed land. This massive concentration of land ownership and wealth is on a par with Brazil, Colombia and Philippines.
Some of these processes of ever-increasing land concentration are not new; however they have accelerated in recent decades in particular in Eastern Europe. Many feature European companies, as well as new actors including Chinese companies and Middle Eastern Hedge Funds, tied into an increasingly global commodity chains, and all looking to profit from the increasingly speculative commodity of land.
Hungary : Stop land grab!
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- Published on Friday, 19 April 2013 09:09
Join statement of FOEI, LVC, WMW, CEO etc.
(Budapest, 8 April 2013) We, the undersigned organisations who represent millions of grassroots communities, women’s organisations and small-scale farmers across the globe support the struggle against land grab in Hungary.
Access to land, including control of how it is used and for what purposes, is for local farmers a key element of food sovereignty. Therefore we are very concerned by the alarming rate of land grabbing happening world wide. We recognize that land grabbing is not only happening in the Global South but also in Europe.
We have learned that according to estimates around 1 million ha of land in Hungary have already been grabbed by foreign investors via so called "pocket contracts" and hundreds of thousands of hectares by companies or Hungarian landlords via the leasing of state owned land. The planned new land tenure act submitted by the Hungarian government to the parliament would further accelerate land grabbing and concentration of land unless the draft law is changed by amendments that are supported by almost two hundred civil society groups and farmers' organizations.
European Coordination Via Campesina is determined to defend family farming and small-farmers in Europe
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- Published on Friday, 19 April 2013 09:03
European Coordination Via Campesina Press release
(17 April- Fuerteventura)
From 15th to 17th April, ECVC, a European association of small-farmers that brings together 27 farming bodies from 17 countries across Europe, including outside the EU, held its annual General Assembly in the Canary Islands, Spain. One of the Outermost Regions of the European Union, it is not only where Rafael Hernandez, president of Coag Canarias and outgoing member of the management team, grows his crops but also where Mario Cabrera Gonzales, President of the Government of the Island of Fuerteventura, has declared his intention to develop food sovereignty by promoting local production and autonomy.
This is a goal shared by ECVC, and represents a real challenge at a time when the CAP, currently under reform, has come under attack from agribusiness and defenders of major European farming, who are opposed to any change. The CAP offers little hope to the organisations represented by ECVC despite their considerable contribution to the institutional debate, aimed at defending small and medium-scale farmers, the majority of whom are based in the EU. Poverty and unemployment is exacting a rising toll on citizens as a result of the European crisis, which starkly demonstrates the limits of the liberal dogma at work. We must stop destroying farming jobs and instead enable more rural businesses. Achieving access to quality food for all in Europe requires a large number of farms, sustainable production methods and a physical shift in food supply chains.
