Forward The Future Free Of Hunger, Dispossession, And
Destruction!
Unparalleled urgency marks our annual
commemoration of World Hunger Day amid imperialist
machinations to advance a sinister agenda to monopolize
further and exploit global food systems under the pretext of
saving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and urgent
climate actions.
It is undeniable that we are nowhere
near zero hunger as envisioned under the SDGs, with the
United Nations (UN) itself disclosing
in its July 2023 report that the) number of people
facing hunger and food insecurity has been rising since
2015: “In 2022, about 9.2% of the world population was
facing chronic hunger, equivalent to about 735 million
people – 122 million more than in 2019. An estimated 29.6%
of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were
moderately or severely food insecure, meaning they did not
have access to adequate food. This figure reflects an
alarming 391 million more people than in
2019.” By the 2030 SDG deadline, around 600
million, not zero, are expected to be still hungry,
according to a separate
report of the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), also published last July.
Meanwhile,
real climate action is severely lacking. Again, quoting the
UN’s SDG report: “With a climate cataclysm
looming, the pace and scale of current climate action plans
are wholly insufficient to effectively tackle climate
change. Increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather
events are already impacting every region on Earth. Rising
temperatures will escalate these hazards further, posing
grave risks.”
Instead of addressing the
structural issues underlying these crises and the failure to
face them head-on, the UN has allowed monopoly corporations
from imperialist countries to exploit the food, hunger, and
climate crises to pursue a despicable plan to gain more
control over and take advantage of the world’s food
systems. Food systems transformation has become a buzzword
since the UN and its corporate backers launched the Food
Systems Summit in 2021 and follow-up meetings such
as the so-called Stocktaking
Moment last July. It has been among the top talking
points in major global policy discussions, such as the
recent SDG
Summit last September and the upcoming 28th meeting
of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP28)
In November/December. It is the same corporate agenda behind
other global platforms that aim to chart the future of food,
like the ongoing (October 16-18) 6th
International Rice Congress (IRC) under the theme
“Accelerating Transformation of Rice-Based Food
Systems.”
Global food systems indeed need a radical
transformation that will substantially contribute to
tackling global hunger and the climate catastrophe. But as
the world grapples with these increasingly dire global
crises, imperialist powers are tightening their grip over
our food, using the pretense of food systems transformation,
climate action, and sustainable development to further their
own interests and consolidate their stranglehold on our
planet
For instance, during the UN Food Systems
stocktaking meeting, the COP28 Presidency and the UN Food
Systems Coordination Hub unveiled a strategic
partnership. This partnership purportedly seeks to
amplify the role of food systems in driving progress towards
the SDGs and the climate targets under the Paris Agreement.
It supposedly aims to harmonize efforts in food systems
transformation and climate action within the broader context
of global sustainable development efforts. The UN Food
Systems-COP28 collaboration covers key global policymaking
platforms, including the 2023 SDG Summit, the 2024 UN Summit
of the Future, UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moments (2023 and
2025), and the COPs from 2023 to 2025.
Monopoly
corporations significantly influence the UN Food Systems and
COP discussions and steer their policy direction. Their
presence and leadership roles are unquestionable. It is thus
impossible to expect meaningful changes in food systems and
climate action that would genuinely support the sustainable
development and future we all want, including the well-being
of rural communities.
To illustrate, over 15 top chief
executive officers (CEOs) of big transnational corporations
(TNCs) are deeply involved in the UN Food Systems-COP28
partnership and cover every step of the agriculture supply
chain, from production to consumption and finance. As a part
of this collaboration, they have also launched a flagship
initiative to encourage the widespread use of
“regenerative” agriculture in major food landscapes.
However, their brand of regenerative or “climate-smart
agriculture” is a cover for TNCs to tighten their control
over seeds, agrochemical inputs, and other “innovations”
that make use of digital technologies to further profit from
food systems and lucrative carbon markets. Monoculture
corporate plantations are expanding under various corporate
greenwashing and false climate solution schemes that benefit
big businesses, harm the environment, and displace and
intensify the exploitation of poor farmers, agricultural
workers, and other small food producers.
Corporate
fingermarks are also all over the IRC, with agrochemical and
seed TNCs Corteva Agriscience and Bayer among its major
sponsors, and the Bill
Gates-funded Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) as lead organizers. Not
surprisingly, the agenda of the 6th IRC in Manila centers
around techno-fixes (e.g. genetic engineering, synthetic
biology, digitalization) that threaten to further erode
agro-biodiversity and food sovereignty, while strengthening
corporate control and keeping intact neoliberal policies
that have caused the impoverishment and indebtedness of most
rice farmers.
While governments and institutions often
claim to support the most vulnerable peasants in the Global
South amidst the ongoing climate crisis, many of the
proposed climate solutions are, in fact, leading to the
displacement of these communities and the disruption of
their way of life, while funneling public resources and
shaping policies to fit into the corporate food
agenda.
Globally, at least 1.2
billion hectares of land are designated for
so-called ‘nature-based solutions’ by governments with
the aim of mitigating and adapting to climate change by
2050. Notably, many of these plans target lands owned by
peasants and indigenous peoples in the Global South. The
promotion of renewable energy and conservation frequently
comes at the cost of these communities, worsening the
existing food crisis. The expansion of biofuel plantations
and afforestation initiatives encroach on indigenous lands
and turn peasants into low-paid agricultural laborers.
Furthermore, corporate-led conservation efforts and
eco-tourism projects, labeled as “green” and “blue,”
are pushing indigenous communities away from their ancestral
territories. Meanwhile, the desire for greater corporate
profits continues to drive massive reclamation projects that
displace coastal communities and small fishers, aggravating
the environmental, climate, and hunger crises. Imperialist
institutions, financiers, and corporations work in cahoots
with national governments and local comprador and landlord
elites to carry out such plunder of the peoples’ lands and
natural resources.
We expect all these efforts to
culminate at the 2024
Summit of the Future, where the monopoly corporations
intend to fully consolidate their imperialist agenda in
determining the future of the world’s food systems, along
with global development and climate goals.
Over the
past few years, there has been a concerning surge in rural
bombings and violence against peasants, aimed at suppressing
resistance to land grabs and forced evictions. These attacks
are often tied to land disputes and target peasant
uprisings, leading to massive destruction of community lands
and resources, fatalities, injuries, and forced
displacements. Last year alone, 177
people – including peasant and indigenous peoples
and activists – were murdered for asserting the right to
land and defending the environment from corporate plunder
and destruction. Authoritarian and fascist regimes in the
Global South, often with imperialist backing, persist in
harassing, imprisoning, and defaming peasant activists and
their supporters, while also militarizing farming
communities and exploiting counter-terrorism laws and
policies to facilitate land grabs.
We must not allow
imperialist powers and interests to manipulate the food,
climate, and development agenda at the expense of the
peoples’ rights and interests. If we want genuine
sustainable development, are serious about achieving zero
hunger, and are committed to taking real climate action to
save our planet, we must expose and oppose these
profit-motivated schemes.
Rural communities around the
world are rising to meet the challenges before us. We are
tackling the unprecedented crises of global hunger,
displacement, and environmental destruction with staunch
determination. We are rising against land and resource
grabbing and political repression. We have gathered through
the Global
Peoples’ Caravan for Food, Land, and Climate
Justice (GPC) to forward the future of our people and planet
away from the starvation-ridden and calamitous path of
imperialism.
Through the GPC, we assert three breaks
and three radical shifts to steer the direction toward the
future we aspire for. We must break the chain of imperialist
plunder through (1) breaking the domination of imperialism
over global governance, (2) breaking TNC control over our
food systems, and (3) breaking away from fossil fuel-hungry
food systems. We must shift the future through (1) shifting
the bias of policymaking toward the peoples’ rights and
aspirations, (2) shifting the control over lands and natural
resources, and (3) shifting financing toward genuinely
radical food systems transformation.
We must organize
and build toward our own Peoples’ Summit to counter the
imperialist-backed Summit of the Future, lay out our
development goals, chart our future, and define the ways to
get there.
We must work tirelessly to strengthen
further and expand our movements, pushing for fundamental,
lasting policy reforms to address the numerous crises
afflicting rural peoples and all working peoples worldwide.
###
Endorsed by the following
organizations:
- Asian Peasant
Coalition (APC) - Peoples’ Coalition on Food
Sovereignty (PCFS) - PAN Asia Pacific
(PANAP) - Coalition of Agriculture Workers
International (CAWI) - GRAIN
- Australia
Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ACHRP),
Australia - Labour Resource Center (LRC),
Bangladesh - Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous
Knowledge (BARCIK) , Bangladesh - Shikha Shastha
Unnayan Karzakram (SHISUK), Bangladesh - People’s
Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) Burundi ,
Burundi - Ponlok Khmer, Cambodia
- Synaparcam ,
Cameroon - Centre for Philippine Concerns ,
Canada - Solidarité des Femmes sur le Fleuve Congo ,
Democratic Republic of the Congo - Muyissi
Environnement, Gabon - Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries
Educational Network, Greece - Plataforma de Economia
Solidaria-Pecosol, Guatemala - Organización Fraternal
Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), Honduras - Andhra Pradesh
Vyavsaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), India - Bharat
Agroecology Fund, India - CREATE Trust,
India - National Alliance of Agriculture Allied
Workers Union (NAAWU), India - National Coalition for
Natural Farming (NCNF) , India - Society for Rural
Education and Development (SRED), India - Vikas
Adhayayan Kendra, India - Aliansi Gerakan Reforma
Agraria (AGRA), Indonesia - Bina Desa,
Indonesia - BITRA Indonesia, Indonesia
- Gita
Pertiwi , Indonesia - Justice, Peace, Integrity of
Creation (JPIC) Kalimantan, Indonesia - KPNS,
Indonesia - SERUNI, Indonesia
- Yayasan CAPPA
Keadilan Ekologi , Indonesia - Donders Foundation,
Indonesia - SHK Lestari , Indonesia
- Jeunes
Volontaires pour l’Environnement (JVE), Ivory
Coast - Dibeen for Environmental Development,
Jordan - Angaza Youths Association ,
Kenya - Rural Initiatives Development Programme
(RIDEP), Kenya - Asociación Nacional de Empresas
Comercializadoras de Productores del Campo,
Mexico - Caritas Nepal, Nepal
- Social Work
Institute (SWI), Nepal - Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor
Tehreek (PKMT), Pakistan - Roots for Equity,
Pakistan - KOSHICOOP, Peru
- ANPE-Peru,
Peru - Agroecology X, Philippines
- Alyansa ng
Magbubukid sa Bulacan , Philippines - Amihan National
Federation of Peasant Women, Philippines - Kilusang
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Philippines - NNARA-Youth,
Philippines - NNARA-Youth PUP,
Philippines - NNARA-Youth UP Diliman,
Philippines - NNARA-Youth UP Manila,
Philippines - Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc.
(PMPI), Philippines - SIBAT,
Philippines - Archdiocese of Manila Ministry on
Ecology , Philippines - Borongan Cathedral Parish
Ecology Ministry, Philippines - SANKAPA,
Philippines - Fahamu NSS, Senegal
- Reachout
Salone, Sierra Leone - FIAN Sri Lanka, Sri
Lanka - Lanka Organic Agricultural Movement (LOAM),
Sri Lanka - Human Development Organization (HDO), Sri
Lanka - The Southern Peasants’ Federation of
Thailand (SPFT), Thailand - Support for Women in
Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN),
Uganda - Farmworker Association of Florida , United
States of America - Food Safety Mid Atlantic, United
States of America - Agricultural Justice Project,
United States of America - North American Climate,
Conservation and Environment (NACCE), United States of
America - Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and
Biodiversity (ZAAB) ,
Zambia
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