Agricultural – G8: It is not for rich countries to decide the agricultural policies of the poor!

Media Advisory / La Via Campesina – AIAB

(Brussels/Rome April 15, 2009) La Via Campesina will be mobilising against the meeting of the Agricultural ministers of the G8 in Treviso in Italy from the 17th to 20th of April. The G8, as well as representatives of China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt will be meeting to discuss “technical” issues related to hunger and the food crisis internationally.

La Via Campesina is an International movemnent of peasant farmers with more than 200 million members worldwide, many of whom have been victims of the neo-liberal policies promoted by the G8 in the past. With the financial crisis these policies have been shown to be inefficient, and neo-liberalism to be an ideology which has failed to alleviate hunger and protect the rights of peasants across the globe.

Now the G8 is attempting to construct a new international architecture for food which would completely isolate UN institutions such as the FAO and IFAD and would bring international agricultural policy and investment under the control of the World Bank and IMF.

La Via Campesina promotes another framework for international agriculture – one based on food sovereignty, the rights of peasants and on sustainable, local forms of production and distribution which stimulate rural economies and cool the earth.

La Via Campesina will be present with an international delegation in Treviso, with farmers from Africa and Europe, in order to defend their alternatives.

The delegation will also participate in the events organised by the Italian Platform for Food Sovereignty with the Associazione Italiana de Agricultura Biologica (AIAB) and the Associazione Rural Italiana (ARI) , La Via Campesina's Italian members.

18th April

Morning: Public Seminar on Food Sovereignty with the Italian Platform for Food Sovereignty and the Italian Coalition Against Poverty, Palazzo Bomben, Via Cornarotta 7, Treviso

12.30 PM: Press Conference with LVC representatives from Africa and Europe, Palazzo Belen, Via Cornarotta 7, Treviso

Afternoon: Farmer's Market and Mobilisation in Treviso city centre

For more information or to arrange interviews with our delegates, please contact

Lorenzo Misuraca: +393293562461
Fergal Anderson: +32488880847 (e-mail: fergal@eurovia.org)

more info on www.viacampesina.org