International Newsletter on
Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #99
June 1st 2013
Summary
Editorial message
Solidarity economy strengthens peasant agriculture and food sovereignty:
a workshop at the WSF 2013, jointly organised by the
Via Campesina and URGENCI with the support of RIPESS
First meeting of the
Francophone Social and Solidarity Economy Network of the Americas (Haiti)
Message from the editorial team
During the WSF 2013, both Judith and Yvon
were in Tunis and jointly spoke in a workshop dedicated to food sovereignty.
This is a resume of the workshop. It was written by Morgane Iserte of Urgenci.
Yvon also represented the Canadian Community Economic Development
Network (CCEDNET) at a meeting that took place in Haiti. It was aimed at
discussing how to network Social and Solidarity Economy in the Americas. As an
American minority group, initiatives of this kind are often powerful tools for
improving day-to-day living conditions.
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut
Solidarity
economy strengthens peasant agriculture and food sovereignty Workshop at the WSF 2013.
Co-organised by the Via Campesina and URGENCI, with the support of
RIPESS.
Speakers: Yvon Poirier, RIPESS North America and Canadian Community Economic
Development Network) CCEDNET), Quebec; Josie Riffaud, Via Campesina, Confédération Paysanne, France; Judith Hitchman, URGENCI,
France-Ireland; N’Diakaté Fall, Via
Campesina, Conseil National de Concertation et de coopération des Ruraux
(CNCR), Senegal; Jean-Michel Dupont,
MIRAMAP, France.
JR: The Via Campesina is active among other things in
establishing new ways to provide food. But in France, small-scale peasant
agriculture only represents 4% of the active population; they therefore need
support to lobby and help implement food sovereignty now!
There are two ways of defining food sovereignty: 1) it
is an international right, fighting against the WTO’s policies, and aimed at
protecting local peasant agriculture against unfair competition of big
agribusiness and factory farming. 2) It is also a vision of local agriculture
that is part of local solidarity networks, and that supports exchange with the
Earth and all living things.
JH: URGENCI is an international network of local
solidarity partnerships between producers and consumers that brings together
Community Supported Agriculture initiatives everywhere in the world, with
conscious consumers supporting local producer to jointly share the risks and
benefits of peasant agriculture and support farming through fair prices for
their produce; the money is paid up-front to producers.
URGENCI’s activities are at the crossroads between
food sovereignty and solidarity economy. The network builds alliances with the
world of peasant agriculture and the organisations that promote other parts of
the local solidarity jigsaw (complementary currencies, energy, Community Land
Trusts…).
NF: The Conseil National de Concertation
et de Coopération des Ruraux (CNCR) brings together various Senegalese
organisations that work for the protection of small-scale family farming in a
country where 70% of the population are still small-scale farmers. Farming is
the single biggest employer! Since 2000, CNCR has been running consultations to
support the development of short food circuits and encourage both producers and
consumers to eliminate the middlemen who are the main hurdle to determining
fair prices. Since the 2008 food crisis, this process has accelerated. An
example of this is bread, with a round table discussion that was organised with
bakers and peasant farmers who mill the millet flour themselves as well as
consumers. They jointly determined the price that they all found satisfactory.
People living in cities are finding it increasingly difficult to source local
products. Almost everything is imported, as these imported foods are
subsidised, and therefore cheaper, so distribution networks for local produce
is a major issue. This is being met be introducing many local neighbourhood
shops, that are run by womens’ groups.
J-MD: MIRAMAP is the inter-regional movement of
Associations to Maintain Peasant Agriculture in France. It includes 8000
families and 2000 producers. AMAPS were first created in 2001, and have three
objectives: rebuild social relationships between rural and urban dwellers;
producers and consumers; promote sustainable small-scale family farming,
popular education (for example, to determine the price of the box, producers
and consumers in a CSA openly discuss the farmer’s needs, what would constitute
a fair price, the investments that the farmer needs to make etc.). Solidarity,
transparency, proximity and the respect for nature are the core values of each
CSA. AMAPs have had to cope with two problems as the model has spread: that of
access to land (they work with Terre de Liens), and that of how young farmers
can establish themselves (cope with the costs, training etc.). There is an
incubator for agricultural activities in the Paris region called Les Champs du
Possible (Fields of Possibilities). (http://www.amap-idf.org/champs-possibles-couveuse-activites-agricoles_28.php). Recurrent
issues are certification, availability for all and solidarity baskets.
YP Yvon spoke about a Japanese consumers
cooperative that was established in 1965 by some pioneers whose objective was
to improve the quality of life, following the Minamata scandal. The objective
was to provide fresh, uncontaminated food. This cooperative, called the
Seikatsu Club, now includes some 350,000 members, who invest between 1-2000 USD
each.
The full
presentation is available at: http://www.socioeco.org/bdf/fr/corpus_document/fiche-document-1664.html).
It is based on a vision of overall social and
political change. Out of the 21 consumer cooperatives in Japan, only 3 are
involved in direct buying and selling. The Seikatsu Club continues to encourage
short distribution circuits in Japan. Seikatsu Club buys directly all from
partner producers. The challenges are important in Japan. For example, 200,000
tons of the 240 000 tons of organic produce that are consumed are imported
products.
During the discussion
phase of the work-shop, various themes were brought up:
-
The ethics of sharing
-
Traditional user’s rights
-
Farm seeds and the fight against GMOs
-
How to avoid deviation from or recuperation of SSE
initiatives? (The example of the Biocoop was mentioned. C.f.
the excellent article in French La bio. Entre business et projet de société,
by Philippe Baqué (dir.) Collection Contre-feux, Agone, 2012)
-
The development of canteens using short circuits (in
Brazil 30% of all food served in school canteens must be sourced from SSE)
-
How to ensure small mixed farms are viable
But the underlying
question of the 500,000 unemployed of Tunisia was the key issue in the
discussion: what is their future, if not through social and solidarity economy?
It could be said that it already exists, as traditional economy is based on
local relationships and products. In Tunisia, 75% of farms are family market
gardens of less than 2 hectares.
What mechanisms are
concrete forms of organisation such as cooperatives etc. can help it to develop
most effectively? And help establish productive activities that will provide
employment for young people? The role of local authorities in building SSE in a
way that meets each territory’s need is crucial to meet the needs expressed by
local inhabitants and to relocalise jobs and ensure local food sovereignty.
First meeting of the
Francophone Social and Solidarity Economy Network of the Americas (Haiti)
The Centre de la francophonie des Amériques
organized a meeting in Cap Haitien, from April 30 to May 2.
The
objective of this meeting was to promote the discovery of approaches and
practices of social and solidarity economy (SSE). For the Centre, solidarity and social economy draws its
strength from the heart of collective sustainable development practice and
contributes to building a more just and equitable world.
French
is the 4th most widely spoken language in the Americas, coming
respectively after Spanish, English and Portuguese. As a minority group in the
Americas, it turns out that the SSE could be an indispensable tool in many
communities.
In
addition to representatives from Quebec and Canada, there were participants
from Louisiana, Guadeloupe and Haiti.
Photo
by Wesley Benjamin, May 2, 2013
The
idea of setting up a network for the exchange of information on SSE in the
Francophone areas of the Americas is seen by participants as very relevant.
We,
from the Chantier de l’économie sociale
and the Canadian Community Economic
Development Network (CCEDNET), both members of RIPESS North America, were
partners of the Centre in holding the meeting.
Éric Lefebvre
Chantier de l’économie
sociale
Éthel
Côté and Yvon Poirier
Canadian
Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET)
About the Newsletter
This Newsletter
is published in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and in
Japanese. It has been produced on a voluntary basis since the first issue in
2003.
The Editorial
team wishes to thank the following volunteers for their support in translation
and revision:
Michel Colin (Brazil)
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland)
Évéline Poirier (Canada)
Brunilda Rafael (France)
We also wish to
thank the Civil Policy Research Institute (CPRI) of Seikatsu Club in Japan for
the Japanese translation and AKSI UI for the translation to Bahasa Indonesia.
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Yvon Poirier
ypoirier@videotron.ca
