La Via Campesina, founded in 1993, is an international movement bringing together millions of peasants, landless workers, indigenous people, pastoralists, fishers, migrant farmworkers, small and medium-size farmers, rural women, and peasant youth from around the world. Built on a solid sense of unity and solidarity, it defends peasant agriculture for food sovereignty.
Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their food and agriculture systems. La Via Campesina insists that diverse, peasant-driven agroecological modes of production, based on centuries of experience and accumulated evidence, are central to guaranteeing healthy food to everyone while remaining in harmony with nature. To achieve food sovereignty, La Via Campesina mobilizes and advocates for agrarian reform in peasant territories and provides training on agroecological production methods.
This global coalition is also a platform for its members worldwide to communicate and carry out joint solidarity actions, mobilizations, and campaigns in defense of land, water, seeds, and forests. Over the last three decades, La Via Campesina has successfully found a seat at the table of global institutions of governance such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, the UN Decade of Family Farming, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and more.
The United Nations Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, adopted by the General Assembly in 2018, results from 17 years of negotiations patiently led by La Via Campesina and its allies.
This Declaration is among the essential international instruments that defend the rights of small-scale food producers and is a crucial tool in the implementation of food sovereignty. Currently, La Via Campesina comprises 180 local and national organizations in 81 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, ArNA* and the Americas. Altogether, it represents about 200 million small-scale food producers.
INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION
GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE AND GLOBALIZE HOPE
The movement upholds the spirit of internationalism and solidarity and ensures that local struggles in our territories and the various political expressions are made visible through annual mobilizations on the following days:
8th March: International Working Women’s Day: For the realization of popular peasant feminism in rural communities.
17th April: International Day of Peasant Struggles: To highlight the criminalization and oppression of rural social movements.
10th September: International Day of Action against the WTO and FTAs: To highlight the devastating consequences FTAs have on national and local economies.
16th October: International Day of Action for Peoples’ Food Sovereignty and against transnational corporations: To amplify the demand for food sovereignty and call out the aggressive expansion and human rights violation of Transnational Agribusiness firms.
25th November: International Day for the Elimination of Gender based Violence: To demand justice and equity for women, girls and diversities.
3rd December: International Day against Agrotoxics: In the framework of Campaign in defense of life and against Agrotoxics, in solidarity with the struggle against agro-toxins and chemical, increasingly pushed by agribusiness.
A FILM ABOUT LA VIA CAMPESINA
Popular Peasant Feminism
Youth in La Via Campesina
Diversity in La Via Campesina
ANNUAL REPORTS
La Via Campesina’s Annual Report | 2022
In 2022, LVC voiced strong demands and proposals to address…
La Via Campesina: 2020 Annual Report
Summary: This annual report highlights the struggles and activities we…
La Via Campesina: 2019 Annual Report
Summary: This annual report highlights the struggles and activities we…
La Via Campesina: 2018 Annual report
Title: La Via Campesina – 2018 Annual report Year: June…
