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Feed our people first. Quebec Rendezvous for Food Sovereignty

JOHN SAUL, HERVÉ KEMPF AND AMINATA TRAORÉ AT THE PODIUM TO PROMOTE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

The organizers believe that the speakers’ vision and reflections on food commoditization, globalization and liberalization of agricultural trade deserve to be shared publicly to fuel the debate and democratize the food sovereignty issue. "Globalization of markets and liberalization of agricultural trade, as currently proposed by the World Trade Organization (WTO), would cause the disappearance of human-scale family farms. The model proposed by the WTO is not inevitable and we consider that food sovereignty must be proposed as the alternative to blind liberalization," they said.

Feed our people first!
This conference is a key element in a series of events entitled "D’abord nourrir notre monde, Rendez-vous québécois pour la souveraineté alimentaire" (Feed our people first, Quebec Rendezvous for food sovereignty), which will be held on September 6 and 7, 2007, to raise Quebecers’ awareness of the necessity to rethink our agri-food system.

Équiterre, the GO5 Coalition and La Coop fédérée are thus combining their efforts to propose a different agricultural system, which would allow farmers to feed their own population, in a food sovereignty context. "Food sovereignty should be the basis of sustainable development of agriculture and agri-food, especially since in Quebec we already have tools that allow us to achieve it, such as supply management, collective marketing and community-supported agriculture," said GO5 Coalition spokesman Marcel Groleau.

"We intend to affirm that, just like water and culture, agriculture and food are part of the world’s heritage and must be granted an exception," declared Ghislain Cloutier, 1^st Vice-President of
La Coop fédérée.

"In Quebec, as the Commission on the future of Quebec agriculture and agri-food (CAAAQ) completes its consultations, we believe that it is the appropriate time to reflect and propose alternatives to food commoditization. These alternatives already exist, and several others are in reach, such as compulsory labelling of Quebec products. Équiterre believes in food sovereignty, and we hope to mobilize citizens on this fundamental issue," added Frédéric Paré, coordinator of Équiterre’s Ecological Agriculture program.

Setting the table for fundamental changes
The program of "D’abord nourrir notre monde, Rendez-vous québécois pour la souveraineté alimentaire" (Feed our people first, Quebec Rendezvous for food sovereignty) also includes a Summit of food sovereignty promoters on September 7, which will be attended by many organizations representing producers and consumers. The general public is invited to attend the conference on Thursday, September 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Montreal Olympia. Tickets are on sale at the Olympia ticket counter or through the Ticketpro system (www.ticketpro.ca, 514 908-9090, 1 866 908-9090). For more information, visit web site www.nourrirnotremonde.org

Food sovereignty, an alternative to blind liberalization
Food sovereignty commits countries to feed their people first from their own agricultural land and their farms. It seeks to protect and regulate the national production and agricultural trade of the world's countries in order to achieve sustainable development objectives, determine their degree of food self-reliance and eliminate dumping on their markets. Food sovereignty is not opposed to trade, provided that trade is subordinated to the rights of peoples to local, healthy and environmentally sustainable agricultural and food production.

The concept of food sovereignty, discussed publicly for the first time in 1996 at the World Food Summit, held under the auspices of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is receiving more and more support around the world.

A consensus vision
The GO5 Coalition for a Fair Farming Model, Supply Management, represents 30,000 individuals and organizations including farmers, agri-food partners, businesses, elected representatives and individuals. Its initiatives seek to promote supply management and to ensure that this system is maintained at the end of the current WTO round of negotiations. The milk, poultry, table egg and hatching egg sectors are governed by this system of marketing.

Équiterre is a non-partisan organization dedicated to building a citizens' movement by promoting individual and collective choices that are both environmentally and socially responsible. In the agriculture and agri-food field, this means reintroducing sustainability, mutual assistance, territoriality and a sense of responsibility among citizens for sound food choices.

Comprising 95 federated cooperatives, La Coop fédérée is Quebec's agricultural cooperative federation representing more than 52,000 members. La Coop provides a wide range of agricultural and/or consumer goods and services, including petroleum products, to farmers and other rural people. Through its divisions, subsidiaries and other ventures, it also processes and sells various farm products including pork and poultry on local and international markets.

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