The first five agrarian courts will open in May in the cities of Cartagena, Quibdó, Popayán, Pasto and Tunja, with 65 more to come. Peasant farmers, or campesinos, have long struggled for recognition by the state. Another effort by President Petro to resolve the unequal land divide is a promise to redistribute more than 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land.
To find the roots of the problems that are now flourishing in the form of discontent in the countryside, one needs to point to the beginning of the establishment of international trade rules in this latest era of globalization. The WTO has become a space where the Rule of Might prevails, with a few developed countries determining the course of world trade.
Tanzania is pursuing another round of foreign agribusiness investment. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands are being turned into block farms to produce export crops, whose increasing demand is setting the stage for another wave of land grabs. With China looking to Tanzania as a new supply source for soybeans, the stage could be set for another wave of land grabs.
January witnessed global mobilizations to defend peasant rights against corporate food systems and Free Trade Agreements. Peasant-farmers’ dissatisfaction spurred mobilization in Germany, France, Belgium, and Spain. This edition also brings updates from Palestine, East Africa, alongside ongoing struggles in Latin America and Asia.
Dr. Nataraj Huliyar’s play, “Direct Action,” based on the life and struggles of the late Prof. M.D. Nanjundaswamy (MDN), a historical leader in La Via Campesina, founder of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), and legendary organizer of peasants in India, has resonated with farmers across his home state of Karnataka.
The 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina, held in Bogotá, Colombia, in December, provided a space for its members – small-holder farmers from more than 80 countries – to highlight the ongoing crises in their territories. These testimonies of peasants worldwide revealed a shared struggle against the escalating climate crisis. Across South America, Asia, and Africa, a collective plea for global action resonated, urging sustainable alternatives like agroecology.
day, new technologies are being conceived, designed, and implemented rapidly, without space to consider the implications and consequences for farmers. Farming communities are often forced to decide whether or not to adopt tools that were created far from their fields and without their input. How do we reclaim and reassert our voices, perspectives, and values through our own stories?
Discover our collection of podcasts featuring peasant voices expressing the aspirations, demands and proposals of a diverse range of peasant and indigenous communities around the world. We explore peasant agroecology, peasant rights, peasant and popular feminism, unity in diversity, solidarity, cooperation and other components of food sovereignty to secure a future for humanity.
Two South African activists recently attended a conference in Bogotá where they pledged to broaden the participation of individuals, especially women, in the fight for food sovereignty. They denounced the land inequality and the outsized influence of South Africa’s commercial sector on food product pricing, thrusting these critical issues onto the global stage.
While women took part in the establishment and building of La Via Campesina in different territories and international spaces, a collective struggle was necessary to get space and exposure, as well as to push feminism as a struggle that cannot be separated from the peasant struggle and the struggles of the peoples of the world.
