Via Campesina Movement Promotes Food Sovereignty

by Andrea Millar — May 27, 2008

Near as I can gather, the premise of the Via Campesina reform movement is to eliminate unnecessary oil consumption and thus, save the world. The process is based on a concept called 'food sovereignty,' a decentralization of the world's current breadbaskets and an increased presence of local producers, namely small-scale farming operations. Although conventional crops are cheap to grow due to economy of scale, the buyer's price is largely absorption of transportation prices. From the Via Campesina Web site: "The Swiss peasants' organization UNITERRE calculated that one kilo of asparagus imported from Mexico needs 5 liters of oil to travel by plane (11,800km) to Switzerland, while a kilo of asparagus produced in Switzerland only needs 0.3 liters of oil to reach the consumer." Food sovereignty aims to eliminate cost by cutting out an entire section of the food industry, summarily snipping petrochemicals and letting organic and free-trade food rule the global market, not be excluded by it.

The organization, funded in part by the UK's War on Want, is based out of Jakarta, Indonesia. They problematize the current food crisis, for example, by pointing to neoliberal policies that have, in the Via Campesina's statements, undermined nations' own capabilities to feed themselves. Instead, they advocate the small-scale farmer who will feed those closest to them without the use of pesticides or GMOs.

While organic farms are currently believed to be a viable way of feeding the world, complete decentralization seems to obviously muddle the issue of mitigating the food crisis by buttoning up trade. Although an idea with quite a few strong points, it seems to advocate ignoring economic imbalances between the developed and underdeveloped nations. Via Campesina appears to embrace a sort of benign neglect to enable countries--especially ones currently struggling with shortages--to repair their food infrastructures. Great in theory, but problems like supplying vegetables and other essential foods to colder climates during winter seem to fall by the wayside. Via Campesina, we await your next press release. Until then, I'm stoked to have cheap asparagus in the middle of winter--for now.