Our world is facing complex sustainability challenges that are threatening not only our capacity to feed the growing population, but also to nurture it. The Green Revolution and the introduction of sophisticated technological innovations were once considered the best way of fulfilling the food needs of the world population. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t come close to meeting these needs and every year more people become undernourished, both of food and wisdom.
In this short video, we can find simple answers to the most frequently asked questions about food sovereignty: what is it and how is it different from food security, why is it important, how did the term originate and what are the key points?
In the last few weeks, fertilizers have been in the news, as their price increase has accelerated worldwide. The beginning of the war between Ukraine and Russia had a strong impact on the supply of fuels and raw materials for the production of some chemical fertilizers, reducing the supply and aggravating the sharp increase in fertilizer prices, which has already reached 300% in the last months.
The issue of land tenure and land distribution in the Global South is a central and structural issue in understanding the economic and social inequality that pervades these countries, and is an urgent and necessary debate for any revolutionary movement seeking to reverse this inequality in both rural and urban areas. From the time of colonisation to neoliberal capitalism, land has been concentrated in the hands of agrarian and economic elites, at the cost of the detriment of the peasantry. However, there have also been several experiences of peasant struggles, revolutionary processes, and governments that have sought, with different strategies, to reverse this inequality and democratise access to the land. The concept of "agrarian reform" is part of the programme of peasant movements in the Global South; however, partly because the ruling classes have made it a taboo subject, there is little education on it. With this in mind, the book "Experiences of Agrarian Reform in the world", published by Batalla de Ideas (Battle of Ideas), seeks to systematise the experiences of agrarian reform in different parts of the world, with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview and serving as an input for the training of activists. The book was coordinated by Joao Pedro Stédile, Brazilian economist and founder of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in Brazil.
There are at least two urgent calls that invite the discussion on youths in agriculture. The first call for the urgency of attracting youth to agriculture is for the future of agriculture. The average age of farmers all over the world has been increasing especially in recent years.
The forms of rurality have changed in recent decades. The advance of large-scale production, the disappearance of small and medium-sized farms, and the lack of processes that add value to primary production do not encourage life in the countryside.
The production, processing and commercialization of food produced by peasants is an issue of strategic importance for the peoples. Who and how food production, distribution and sales, along with the strategic orientation of production, are central elements of food sovereignty. In this article, the Commercialization Front of Brazil’s MST shares with ROOTS the movement’s experience on the processes of commercialization for the production of the People's Agrarian Reform.
In a second part of reviews of the book “Agrarian Reforms in Latin America in the 20th Century” (coordinated by J.P. Stédile), we present a review of the chapter written by Sergio Gómez E., which presents the Agrarian Reforms carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 20th century . Considering the circumstances and historical factors that affected the continent and each specific country, the author presents an analysis of the meaning of different processes and their effects on the transformation of the structure of land ownership.
In this article, the authors analyse the relationship between microbial life, culture, food and agriculture, reviewing conceptual aspects but above all popular proposals for soil, seed and food management, linked to the management and understanding of microbial life.
This publication corresponds to the second part of an article where the authors reflect on the relationships between microbial life, culture, knowledge development, food and agriculture. You can find the first part of the article here. Continuing with the ideas laid out so far, the authors present concrete experiences in the elaboration and use of bioinputs at different scales and types of production, with a special focus on the local production of bioferments for soil regeneration. Finally, they draw some conclusions about how the management of microorganisms in peasant hands, within the framework of collective processes, is central to achieving food sovereignty and autonomy.
The National School of Agroecology (ENA) is a pedagogical tool built by the Rural Federation for Production and Rooting (Argentina), whose objective focuses on the “Training of Trainers” in agroecology, that is, producers who can teach and extend agroecology in their territories.
Home gardens are an important consideration in terms of household socio-economics and have become one major contributor to urban greenery, yet their significance is often unrecognized. This is particularly relevant in wet-sub equatorial regions such as Ghana, as home gardens have been a way of life for communities in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
During an interview in Argentina, the Colombian agronomist Jairo Restrepo, true to his style, combines these key concepts to broadly address the understanding of this form of food production.
Palestinian women are crucial in the struggle for land rights and territorial sovereignty, as their bond with the land is essential for human societies' development and continuity.
Latin America holds 60% of the world's reserves of lithium, an ore known as "white gold", widely used in mobile devices, batteries and electric cars, which are fundamental in the energy transition to a new green economy.
Africa is considered the new frontier in business, which is evidenced by the existence of numerous transnational companies registered in the Global North with operations on the African continent.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) was adopted in 2018.
This book was written by educators, farmers and ENA technicians, in order to comprise technical, understandable and concrete reference material for the promotion and support of agroecological transition processes in the territories.
The economic centrality of many developing countries is neoextractivism, which is characterised by the export of commodities, especially grains, meat, cellulose, ethanol, ores and oil.