Declaration of the Women peasants of the European Coordination Via Campesina on the 8 of March 2014
(Evenstad, March 6, 2014) In this year 2014 – declared the year of family farming by the UN – the women of the member organizations of the European Coordination Via Campesina are gathered in Evenstad (Norway) in the International Women’s Day. We want to demonstrate our firm commitment to the right to healthy, adequate and good quality food for all citizens, within the framework of an agro-ecological and social mode of production and distribution.
We want the right of farmers to the equal participation within this mode, the legal recognition as producers of food, the access to land, seeds and other resources guaranteed.
Thousands of women farmers across Europe and worldwide work on projects of small scale farming, that are the basis of rich and diverse food systems, we are historical guardians of knowledge and biodiversity, and we ensure the conservation of land and a living countryside.
This way we condemn the attacks on rural communities and in particular the women of neoliberal policies emanating from the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Free Trade Agreements as the one that is being negotiated right now with the United States, being the cause of forced migration and even numerous deaths of people, who try to escape from these situations of poverty.
Another model of food production in the Food Sovereignty framework is essential for a radical social transformation, in a process in which values such as equality and human rights prevail over the interests of capital, the capitalist and the patriarchal policies.
A more egalitarian Europe, more just, can only be achieved if women are involved in decision-making spaces.
We also wish to express our rejection of all forms of discriminatory policies, and in a special way, we wish to express our support for women in different European countries who are mobilizing in defense of sexual and reproductive rights and, ultimately, for us women to have the right to decide about our bodies and our lives.
This 8th of March lets defend our rights as women and farmers in the street