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	Without seeds, there is no agriculture; without agriculture, there is no food by La Via Campesina   Oct. 2018   Peasants seeds are a heritage of peoples in the service of humanity. They are the basis of global food production and they enable peasants to produce and consumers and citizens to find healthy and diversified food. They allow us to maintain our ancestral cultures and defend our peasant identity.   However, these seeds of life are threatened by the seed policies of rich countries, free trade agreements and agribusiness. Under the pretext of 'improving' seed productivity, agribusiness has created a neo-liberal seed system that has homogenized, impoverished and monopolized seeds, causing the loss of three-quarters of seed diversity and annihilating a diversity that it took people - thanks to the work of peasants - 10,000 years to generate.   Three companies, Monsanto-Bayer, Syngenta-ChemChina and Dupont-Dow, control more than 50% of the world's commercial seeds - increasingly genetically modified seeds to resist herbicides and produce insecticides. Under the impetus of the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF, and through free trade agreements and laws protecting seed and breeders rights, such as UPOV standards, this seed system only allows the circulation of its own seeds, criminalizing the saving, exchange, donation and sale of local farmer seeds.   The situation is such that farmers have lost a lot of their local seeds, are put in prison for the defense and exchange of their seed heritage, and risk raids and seizure of their seeds. Biodiversity is destroyed by the use of chemical fertilizers, hybrid seeds and genetically modified organisms developed by multinational companies. Citizens have difficulty accessing healthy, diversified and healthy food. La Via Campesina and its allies are fighting to change the situation.   All over the world, La Via Campesina and its member organizations are stepping up their efforts in training, education, mutual support and seed exchange. We fight for national laws and international treaties to guarantee the rights of farmers to save, use, exchange, sell and protect their seeds against biopiracy and genetic contamination, we write books on the history of seeds, carry out studies and mapping. We also found agro-ecology schools and organize peasant seed exchange fairs.   We exercise our right of self-determination to select the seed varieties we want to plant and reject economically, ecologically and culturally dangerous varieties. These are rights affirmed by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and by the United Nations Declaration on Peasants Rights which has just been adopted by the Human Rights Council in Geneva.   It is also the only way to ensure healthy food for citizens, the preservation of biodiversity and the achievement of food sovereignty.   It is in this spirit that we launched in 2001 in Rome the International Campaign of Peasant Seeds, a heritage of peoples in the service of humanity, with the objective of promoting the recovery of traditional systems for the conservation, maintenance and exchange of local seeds and the inalienable collective rights of peasants over their seeds.   On this October 16, 2018, on the occasion of the World Day of Action for Food Sovereignty of Peoples, we are relaunching this campaign and the 'Adopt a Seed' action.   We call on every peasant, peasant family or community to engage in the adoption of a variety of plant seeds, to become the guardian of this seed, ensuring its propagation, reproduction and distribution and to engage in the collective defense of their rights to use, exchange, sell and protect them. In this way, we will create a large network of peasant seeds to save those that have become rare and extend production towards the food sovereignty of peoples.   By adopting a seed, peasant families preserve their identity and territory and affirm their peasant way of life. They claim the historical memory and ancestral culture of seed management, promoting an urban and rural ecological agriculture that reproduces the miracle of more seeds and food of better quality, taste and nutritional value.   No government measure can limit the collective rights of farmers to use, exchange and sell their seeds. Free consent between farmers should be applied without restriction.   * La Via Campesina comprises 182 local and national organisations in 81 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, representing some 200 million farmers.   http://viacampesina.org/en/16-october-la-via-campesina-relaunches-global-campaign-for-seeds-a-heritage-of-peoples-in-the-service-of-humanity/ http://www.iied.org/qa-why-indigenous-seed-saving-women-are-stewards-biodiversity Visit the related web page
	Realizing the Right to Food by FIAN International, agencies   Oct. 2018   A civil society led report draws attention to the main challenges for the right to food and demonstrates that 'business as usual' simply does not work.   Following a broad consultation amongst social movements, indigenous peoples, small-scale food producers and NGOs, a new report is shedding light on the main obstacles - often unaddressed - that we face to meet one of our most basic right.   Evolving around the use and implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (the RTF Guidelines), its findings demonstrate that the primacy of private sector interests is in fact perpetuating world hunger.   There still remains a significant gap between policy and normative development and the realization of the right to food, as evidenced by the increasing rates of global hunger and malnutrition.   The report is a contribution from the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) to the Global Thematic Event on the RTF Guidelines to be held during the 45th session of the UN Committee on Food Security (CFS) in October 2018. As such, it aims to promote 'learning from experience' and accountability in the CFS, the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform on food security and nutrition, and to reinforcing the important role of monitoring within this policy space.   Today, hundreds of millions of individuals - some 821 million according to the latest updates - remain food insecure. Mainstream reports cite the increasing number of conflicts and climate-shocks as the main driver of rising levels of hunger and malnutrition, together with growing rates of unemployment and the deterioration of social protection nets.   However, this analysis fails to fully address key root causes linked to gender, race, class, and access to resources present in the daily lives of the majority of the population.   These lead millions to lack consistent physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs. They face obstacles to securing an adequate income to purchase the food needed to feed their families in a dignified manner, and to acquiring rights and access to the resources - water, land, seeds, biodiversity - necessary to produce food.   By the same token, the increasing influence of corporations in food production and consumption habits, pricing, and marketing, is often disregarded. Currently, many laws and policies support industrial, mono-culture modes of agricultural and food production that feed corporate supply chains and harm the environment. Meanwhile rates of malnutrition continue to soar, with massive impacts on the health and wellbeing of populations across the globe.   Those who seek to defend their own right to food, and that of their communities and peoples, face retaliation, criminalization, persecution and all too often death. These and many other violations occur daily, in all corners of the planet, most often in the absence of any possibility of recourse, access to justice, or enforcing state accountability.   The right to food remains an indispensable tool for ensuring a world free from hunger and malnutrition, with sustainable food systems that respect human dignity. Its realization is foundational for achieving food security, poverty eradication, sustainable livelihoods, social stability, peace and security, economic growth, and rural and social development.   What's more, ambitious targets set forth in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 simply won't be achieved without it.   It is key that while space for human rights is shrinking, we pay attention to a sobering warning: unless we change course, right to food violations will continue to increase.   * Spurred by a determined alliance of governments, civil society organizations (CSOs) and UN offices, the RTF Guidelines were negotiated through a participatory process in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and adopted unanimously by all member states of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2004. Since their adoption, the RTF Guidelines have been used to create tool kits and policy guidance to assist states with national implementation. They have also been used, particularly by the Right to Food Unit at the FAO, to assist governments in adopting national strategies and legislation aimed at right to food realization.   * Access the Civil Society report on the implementation of The Right to Food Guidelines via the link below: http://bit.ly/2OfkkQ2 http://bit.ly/2ClK4Dh http://hilalelver.org/ Visit the related web page
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