Workshop Report

Experiences from workshop on countryside-city relationship, alliances with social movements and alternative ways of commercialisation:

We met from different country's, continents to exchange experiences and to discuss the issues of the relationship between the countryside and the city, alliances with other social movements and alternative ways of commercialisation.

There were young delegates from Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Korea, Indonesia, Portugal Basq country, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and South Africa.
On Countryside- city relation a comrade from Argentina was sharing experiences of exchanges between people in rural areas and from the city, creating a link and spreading information of the destruction of the rural areas and showing and the problem of people escaping the countryside and leaving for the city.
From Brazil we learned about creating a good relationship with people in the city by providing healthy food to e.g. hospitals and to poor people in the city. By doing this, and also taking action against neo-liberal targets they create a positive image of the struggle of the peasants to people in the city. When people see that it is the peasants that is providing them with food is the same as the ones occupying the bank people realize that the bad image that the media is showing on peasant struggle is false.

Direct contact among farmers and citizens is very important to get to know the people on both sides and to understand the peasant´s struggle, because food in supermarkets is impersonal and there is no relation between the producer, their products and the consumer. Ways of getting around this is peasants instead of labeling their products, distributing their products in the city directly and also to put messages along with the product to make their effort and their struggle visible.

We discussed the producer-consumer association, and community supported agriculture as a possibility to create alternatives to commercialisation and to link people in rural and urban areas. This means that consumer and producer come together a a food producing unit in a direct link. In this way peasant is able to get a fair income for the work, the consumer get access to local and healthy food and get opportunity to involve in the way their food is being produced, and to see to that is it done in a way that they agree with. Producer and consumer can have a kind of contract, sharing the risks of e.g. low yield or machine failure.

Certification was discussed. The problem with organic certification is that it is expensive and full of regulations that benefits large industry producers instead of small producers. Organic certification does not guarantee local food that is produced in a sustainable way and does not really help the consumer to benefit the people and the environment. Certification creates a false sense of security with the consumer and can be considered contra-productive for reaching food sovereignty.

Now with the food crisis governments of the world is speaking of food security as a solution. A very false solution in the hands of capitalism meaning intensifying the industrial agribusiness. But with the realization of the food crisis people and governments of the world is really becoming more open for a real solution. This is the opportunity to spread the concept of food sovereignty, solidarity and peasant struggle to all layers of our society.

Olle Andersson