PHA-Exchange> World Forum on Food Sovereignty

[schuftanc at who.ch]

Final Declaration of the World Forum on Food Sovereignty
Havana, Cuba, September 7, 2001

For the peoples' right to produce food, feed themselves
and exercise their food sovereignty.

We-some 400 delegates from peasant and indigenous organizations, fishing
associations, non-governmental organizations, social agencies, academics and
researchers from 60 countries met in Havana to analyze the reasons why
hunger and malnutrition grow every day throughout the world, why the crisis
in peasant and indigenous agriculture, artisanal fisheries and sustainable
food systems has worsened, and why the people are losing sovereign control
over their resources. We gathered to collectively develop viable
alternatives for action on a local, national and global scale, aimed at
reversing current trends and promoting new policies that can guarantee a
hunger-free present and future for all men and women of the world.

Five years after the World Food Summit, seven years after the agricultural
agreements of the Uruguay Round, and following two decades of the
application of neoliberal policies, the promises and commitments made to
satisfy the food and nutritional needs of all are far from being fulfilled.
Actually, the economic, agricultural, fishing and trade policies imposed by
the World Bank, IMF and WTO, and promoted by the transnational corporations,
have widened the gap between the wealthy and poor countries and accentuated
the unequal distribution of income within countries. They have worsened the
conditions of food production and nutrition of the majority of the world's
people, even of some in the developed countries. As a consequence, the right
to food and nutritional well-being enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, is not guaranteed for the world's poor. 

The sustainability of food systems is not merely a technical matter. It
constitutes a challenge demanding the highest political will of states. The
profit motive has led to the unsustainability of food systems often
surpassing the limits on production imposed by nature. 

The hope for a new millennium free of hunger has been frustrated, to the
shame of all humanity. 

The real causes of hunger and malnutrition

Hunger, malnutrition and the exclusion of millions of people from access to
productive goods and resources are not a result of fate, of geographical
location or climatic phenomena. Above all, they are a consequence of
deliberate policies that have been imposed by developed countries and their
corporations to maintain and increase their hegemony within the current
process of global economic restructuring. 

In the face of the neoliberal ideology behind these policies we affirm that:

-     Food is not a merchandise and that the food system cannot be viewed
mainly according to a market logic.
*	The liberalization of international agricultural and fishing trade
does not guarantee the people's right to food.
*	Trade liberalization does not necessarily facilitate economic growth
and the well-being of the poor.
*	The underdeveloped countries are capable of producing their own food
now and in the future if external constraints are lifted.
*	The neoliberal concept of comparative advantage negatively affects
food systems. The importing of cheaper food commodities leads to the
dismantling of domestic production and the reorienting productive resources
towards export crops for the First World markets. 
*	Peasant, indigenous farmers and artisanal fisherfolks are indeed
able to meet the growing needs of food production. Intensive industrial
agriculture and fishing are ill-suited to solve the world`s hunger problems.
*	Current efforts to privatize agricultural and fisheries natural
resources are steps in the wrong direction. 
*	Privatization leads, among other, to massive migration to the cities
and abroad supplying cheap labor to corporations and exacerbating urban
unemployment. 
*	Transnational food models being imposed threaten the diversity of
peoples' food cultures.
*	Developed countries use food as a weapon. We recognize the efforts
of Cuba which, despite a four decades US blockade has managed to guarantee
the right to food for all of its people.
*	All of the above is taking place while  we see a weakening of the
real participation of the rural population in the discussion and adoption of
public policies. 

The consequences of neoliberal policies

*	Developed countries have reaped most of the benefits while the
peoples of the Third World have seen a growth of their external debt and
heightened levels of poverty and social exclusion. The international
agricultural market is cornered by a small number of transnational
corporations while dependence and food insecurity is the reality for the
majority of the rural poor.
*	A number of countries continue to heavily subsidize their export
crops giving no protection to small farmers who produce for the domestic
market.
*	Neoliberal policies are promoting a process of forced
deruralization.
*	Artisanal fishing communities have been increasingly losing access
to their own resources.
*	Hunger and malnutrition are growing, not because of an absence of
food, but rather because of an absence of rights. 

But the eradication of hunger and malnutrition and the exercise of lasting
and sustainable food sovereignty are possible. We have seen in practically
every country countless examples of sustainable food production in peasant
and indigenous communities, as well as sustainable and diversified
management of rural areas.

In view of the foregoing, the participants in the World Forum on Food
Sovereignty declare:

1.	Food sovereignty is the peoples' right to define their own policies
and strategies for the sustainable production, distribution and consumption
of food. This sovereignty centers on supporting small and medium-size
producers; it respects farmers` own cultures and diversity and their own
forms of fishing and agricultural production in which women play a
fundamental role.
2.	Food sovereignty is primarily oriented towards the satisfaction of
the needs of the local and national markets.
3.	The rights, autonomy and culture of indigenous peoples is a
prerequisite for combating hunger and malnutrition as is the recognition of
their right to autonomous control of their territories and natural resources
4.	Food sovereignty further implies guaranteed access to safe and
sufficient food for all individuals. 
5.	Food sovereignty implies the implementation of comprehensive land
reform which will also give equal opportunities to women. It has to entail
equitable access to land, water and forests, as well as to the means of
production, financing, training and capacity building. Where needed, land
reform is an obligation of national governments, but must be controlled by
peasant organizations. We oppose the policies and programs for the
commercialization of land promoted by the World Bank. 
6.	We support the Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food
(put forward for consideration at the upcoming WFS FYL) as an instrument for
the implementation and promotion of this right.
7.	We support the ratification and application of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN, 1966).
8.	We support the adoption by the UN of an "International Convention on
Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Well-being" to rule over decisions on an
international food trade that serves human beings. [Food sovereignty does
not mean autarchy, full self-sufficiency or the disappearance of
international agricultural and fishing trade]. 
9.	We oppose any interference by the WTO to unduly influence national
food, agriculture and fishing policies. We categorically oppose its
agreements on intellectual property rights over plants and other living
organisms. WTO has to be kept out of food.
10.	We propose the creation of a new democratic and transparent order
for the regulation of international trade, the creation of an international
appeals court independent of the WTO, as well as the strengthening of UNCTAD
as a forum for multilateral negotiations on fair trade in food. At the same
time, we propose the promotion of regional networking among producers'
organizations opposing the negative effects of the neoliberal practices
depicted above. 
11.	We demand an immediate end to the unfair subsidies being given to
agricultural exports in the North.
12.	We condemn biopiracy and the patenting of living organisms,
including the development of sterile varieties through genetic engineering
processes. Seeds are the patrimony of all of humanity. The monopolization
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) technologies represents a grave threat
to the peoples' food sovereignty. We demand a ban on open experimentation
and marketing of GMOs until there is conclusive evidence of their impact
(precautionary principle).
13.	We oppose the imposition of food models alien to the food cultures
of sovereign nations. Food sovereignty should be founded on diversified
systems of production, based on ecologically sustainable technologies.
14.	We consider the protection of the environment and biodiversity and
of cultural diversity a priority.
15.	We support the struggles of women for access to productive resources
and for passing on their food cultures to their children.
16.	Artisanal fisherfolks and their organizations are not to relinquish
their rights to free access to inland and coastal fishing grounds and the
establishment and protection of reserve areas for the exclusive use of
artisanal fishing. 
17.	Food aid policies and programs must be reviewed. They cannot inhibit
the development of local food production capacities. They should also not
lead to dependence, to corruption, or to the dumping of foods that are
harmful to health.
18.	Food sovereignty can only be achieved, defended and exercised
through the mobilization of all of society. It requires an effective
democratization of decision-making and the development of national and
international solidarity networks.
19.	We condemn the U.S. policy of blockading Cuba and other peoples and
the use of food as a weapon of economic and political pressure against
countries and popular movements. 
20.	Achieving food sovereignty and eradicating hunger and malnutrition
are possible in all countries and for all peoples. We express our
determination to continue struggling against the negative effects of
globalization, maintaining and increasing our role as social mobilisers,
building strategic alliances and adopting firm political agendas.
21.	We propose declaring October 16 (known until now as World Food Day)
as World Food Sovereignty Day.

Keep the WTO out of food
Another world is possible