While the Member States of the European Union may wish to ban the patentability of GMOs obtained using NTGs, the ability to call into question the European Patent Convention or the rules for its application lies beyond the European Union, as this is defined by the European Patent Office, to which non-EU countries belong.
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.
The newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) issued a sign-on letter* on January 3, 2024 that garnered over 800 organizational endorsements from around the world in less than one week. The coalition letter urges all signing organizations to press their governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case.
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?
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.
Theodora Pius, a member of MVIWATA and Word March of Women Tanzania talks about peasants struggles in the Tanzania. She also shares the solutions proposed by the peasantry in the country and the meaning of building grassroots peasant feminism. This year of 2023 MVIWATA is celebrating its 30 years anniversary.
As the situation of millions of migrants and their families worsens globally, La Via Campesina calls on States to ratify and implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrants and their Families. The peasant movement rejects the proposed EU agreement on migration and reiterates its unwavering support to the struggle for rights and dignity of migrants.
During its 8th International Conference in Bogotá, Colombia, from 1 to 8 December 2023, La Via Campesina issued several solidarity statements to express its support for peasants and indigenous communities worldwide. The peasant movement advocates for the struggles for food sovereignty, climate justice and the rights of peasants.
We, the peasants, rural workers, landless, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, artisanal fisherfolk, forest dwellers, rural women, youth and diversities and other peoples who work in the countryside around the world and united within La Via Campesina, declare that “Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity!” towards a just and decent food system for all, recognizing peoples’ needs, respecting nature, putting people before profit and resisting corporate capture.
The 8th LVC International Conference is a space for critical reflection on the structural forces creating global crises, and the power of this moment to build connections between grassroots movements that are developing alternative worlds in the present. It presents an opportunity to deepen understanding of the contradictions and grassroots strategies of resistance.
