La Via Campesina is an international movement that brings together millions of peasants, landless workers, indigenous peoples and migrants – comprising women, men, youth and diverse identities – from all over the world. The movement brings them together under its banner of comprehensive and popular agrarian reform and food sovereignty. It is a collective expression of the struggle for recognition, legitimacy and dignity of peasant communities and rural people, in a neo- liberal world that is destroying them.
In recent years, globalization and the expansion of agribusiness and monocultural practices have destroyed tens of millions of small farms across the continents. Peasants and small scale food producers now have access to only 25% of the world’s agricultural land. Despite these odds, peasant and rural communities continue to be the world’s major food producers, providing for an estimated 80% of the food needs in non-industrialized countries.
Meanwhile, many governments are increasingly allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO ) and other free trade agreements (FTAs) to govern their national agricultural and food policies. As a result, peasant agriculture finds itself in competition with low-priced imported foodstuffs. The survival of the peasants, who represent almost half of the world’s population, is therefore threatened. The consequences for healthy food systems and for humanity itself are dire.
Peasant agriculture carries within itself the solutions that humanity needs to face the challenges of the future. Therefore its defense and the defense of the rights of peasants is essential.
This film chronicles how La Via Campesina was born more than 28 years ago, as an alternative that brings together struggles, dreams and challenges to build solidarity and secure our collective human future. Watch the film below.
L’Espérance Paysanne | Globalize Hope | La Esperanza Campesina from La Via Campesina on Vimeo.
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