Stand up for small-scale food producers
Put pressure on U.S. and Canadian delegates to the UN's Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to stop land grabbing.
Dear Supporter,
Please stand up for small producers today!
Did you know that nearly 1 billion people in the world - 80% of which are small food producers – live in a state of hunger? The root causes of hunger are not lack of food, but rather lack of justice.
This is why we need you to stand with us and take action today.
Land grabs - a global phenomenon of massive thefts of land from local communities - are one of the most recent trends contributing to this injustice. Grassroots partner the Via Campesina reports that over 45 million hectares of land are already the object of land grabs, with 30 million of these hectares being stolen from communities in Africa. But there's something we can do about it.
At the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal this past January, organizations representing sectors most impacted by the food crisis drafted the "Dakar Appeal against the Land Grab." This appeal exposes those who are most responsible and lays out concrete steps that we can take to stop land grabbing.
In the U.S. and Canada, we have both a responsibility and role to play in this struggle. Many of the corporations and institutions which are profiting from land grabs are based in North America, and our governments have also been playing one of the most disturbing roles in international negotiations around land tenure.
This is why I'm asking you to contact U.S. and Canadian delegates to the UN's Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The CFS was created to address the food crisis and is unique because it actually has an official way for organizations of people most impacted by the food crisis to be involved in developing solutions.
We still have time to influence the outcomes, if we act now.
The next CFS meeting begins on October 10, 2011. Grassroots International is joining the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the National Farmers Union (Canada), Via Campesina, FoodFirst Information and Action Network, WhyHunger, Food and Water Watch, and others to take collective action to demand that principles of food sovereignty are included in the CFS's framework. With your support, we will gather thousands of letters from people and organizations, sending a resounding message to our governmental delegates that we need them to change course, and start listening to the solutions that come from the real experts - those most impacted by the food crisis.
Please join us and take action today!
In solidarity,
Nikhil Aziz
Executive Director Grassroots International
Photo by Grassroots International
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