AFRICA-US FOOD SOVEREIGNTY STATEMENT Conference in Seattle, Washington, USA 13 October 2014
We are brought together by a shared belief in just, sustainable and equitable food for all. We share a concern over the dangerous loss of agricultural biodiversity and of the loss of dignified and viable livelihoods in the countryside.
In great appreciation of the wisdom we each shared coming from our diverse cultures, struggles and experiences that are all a reflection of our shared humanity:
We stand together against the corporate control of our food systems, the lack of accountability of global institutions like the G8 New Alliance For Food Security and Nutrition, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United States (US) government’s Feed the Future Initiative, the Grow Africa Partnership, the Gates Foundation and its Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and others, that are forcing their policies and institutions upon the farmers of the world to open up markets and create spaces for multinationals to secure profits; against the monopolization of our seeds that criminalizes the historical farm practices of saving, sharing, selling and exchanging seeds; against the displacement and dispossession of small-scale farm producers and workers from their lands; against the new Green Revolution, the global Free Trade Agreements, “climate-smart agriculture” and “sustainable intensification”.
We pledge solidarity with the struggles of each of our organizations and with the global food sovereignty movement, and will work in mutual support to amplify the voices of the people on the ground fighting for food sovereignty, share information with the general public about food sovereignty and agro-ecology, and expose the myths underlying the false idea that corporate agriculture is necessary to “feed the world.”
The undersigned,
African Centre for Biosafety Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch Community to Community Family Farm Defenders Friends of the Earth—Africa Food & Water Watch Food First Grassroots International Growth Partners Africa International Development Exchange (IDEX) Kenya Food Rights Alliance (KeFRA) National Family Farm Coalition Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) Rural Women's Assembly (Southern Africa) Right to Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural Surplus People Project WhyHunger Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF)