2021 Food Sovereignty Prize Winners Announced

Register for the virtual event here (Oct. 16, 6pm EDT)

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 Food Sovereignty Prize: The international honoree is the peasant movement FENSUAGRO of Colombia, and the domestic honoree is Eastern Woodlands Rematriation of New England.

Now in its 13th year, the Food Sovereignty Prize is given annually on or around World Food Day to grassroots organizations advancing food sovereignty – the right of all peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It stands in contrast to the World Food Prize, which perpetuates the myth that we can produce our way out of hunger. 

This year’s honorees have been growing food, defending territory, sharing knowledge, and building power in the face of state violence, the COVID-19 pandemic, and mounting climate chaos.

As Colombia’s oldest peasant organization, FENSUAGRO (Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria) has led struggles around agrarian reform, food sovereignty, peasant rights, seeds and water since 1976. For decades, in the midst of Colombia’s armed conflict and political unrest, FENSUAGRO members have been resisting, organizing, and supporting peasants, women and youth to build dignified lives for themselves and their communities. It has nurtured the growth of the Latin American Agroecological Institute (IALA) Maria Cano, an inspiring educational space for young farmers.

FENSUAGRO is among the oldest members of the transnational peasant movement La Via Campesina, which is currently marking 25 years of the global struggle for food sovereignty. La Via Campesina has been mobilizing international solidarity with movements in Colombia, where human rights defenders face ongoing violence, and where the people have been rising up in active resistance.

Eastern Woodlands Rematriation receives this recognition as Indigenous movements throughout the world are waging numerous high-stakes struggles in defense of land and territory — from the Line 3 pipeline protests in the US Midwest to Brazil’s largest ever Indigenous mobilizations taking place in Brasilia — underscoring the centrality of Indigenous struggles to the global struggle for food sovereignty. EWR also embodies a deeply intersectional approach to food sovereignty.

Both honorees will be recognized at the 2021 Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony held on World Food Day, October 16, 2021 at 6 PM Eastern time/5 PM Colombian time. The ceremony will be held virtually and anchored by an in-person event sponsored by USFSA members Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville and Food in Neighborhoods Community Coalition. Simultaneous English/Spanish interpretation will be provided.

Registration is required to attend this free event: Register for the virtual event here.

For more information, contact info [at]usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org.

About the US Food Sovereignty Alliance:

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) is a US-based alliance of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based and food producer groups that upholds the right to food as a basic human right and works to connect our local and national struggles to the international movement for food sovereignty. The Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food economies and assert democratic control over the food system, believing that all people have the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced in an ecologically sound manner. Learn more at usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org.