Episode 51: Sylvia Mallari of People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty
Sylvia Mallari is the Global Co-chairperson of the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty. This organization is one among many that are boycotting the upcoming United Nation’s Food Systems Summit and organizing their own counter-summit.
Grassroots farmworker and peasants movements from all over the world are resisting the corporate takeover of the summit and pushing back against the agenda of industrial, chemical-dependent agriculture that prioritizes profit and efficiency over human health, food security and freedom.
From https://foodsov.org/about-us/ : The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty is a growing network of grassroots food producers and peasant-farmer organizations and their support NGOs, working towards a People’s Convention on Food Sovereignty.
From https://foodsov.org/peoples-food-sovereignty/ : Food sovereignty is the power of people and communities to assert and realize the right to food and produce food and fight the power of corporations and other forces that destroy the people’s food production systems and deny them food and life.
The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty seeks to:
Develop and promote the People’s Food Sovereignty as the alternative platform against neoliberal globalization on food and agriculture policies.
Disseminate the concept of food sovereignty, as a guiding principle in food and agriculture, and as a unifying call for mass movements across the globe.
Coordinate regional and global activities on Food Sovereignty including mobilization, research, and policy advocacy.
Exchange information, skills and experiences in achieving Food Sovereignty in the local, national, and regional levels.
Promote the acceptance of a globally binding International Convention on Food Sovereignty at the national and international level.
For more background on the United Nation’s Food Systems Summit and why organizations such as PCFS are boycotting it and organizing their own counter-summit, please see: https://agrowingculture.medium.com/we-should-all-be-worried-about-the-united-nations-food-systems-summit-803159ee9903 .
Peasants Press Forum, July 19, 2021: https://www.agrowingculture.org/peasant-press-forum-2021/ The Peasant Press Forum is an opportunity for international media organizations and peasant organizations to connect and bring those stories to light. This digital event will feature groups from Asia, Africa and Latin America who are on the frontlines of the global food sovereignty movement. Media and peasant groups must register prior to the event to be able to attend.
The program will consist of brief presentations from peasant groups followed by breakout rooms in which individual groups and media will have the opportunity for dialogue.
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Episode #52 Notes
1:00 - What does food sovereignty mean?
1:30 - What are the goals and vision for the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty?
3:20 - How are decisions made in the coalition?
4:25 - What inspired the formation of the coalition?
5:30 - What have farmers in countries like India, Philippines, Cambodia been experiencing recently?
9:00 - What role do large institutional, international relief organizations play in supporting the global south?
10:45 - On international and philanthropic relief organizations and unintended impacts in the southern hemisphere.
16:00 - What is the UN Food Systems Summit, and why is it being boycotted by some organizations?
27:00 - What is your coalitions alternative to our current food system trajectory?
31:00 - Book recommendations!
