Newsletter no 45 - Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems

Editorial
Food sovereignty – resisting corporate capture of our food systems
This year marks 25 years since the paradigm of food sovereignty was launched at the World Food Summit 1996 in Rome as a direct challenge to market-based food security promoted through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Food sovereignty asserts the autonomy and agency of small-scale food producers and workers in the face of increasing corporate power over the entire realm of food. Since its launch, the food (...)

In the spotlight 1
Resisting the corporate capture of food!
The corporate capture of food is based on the belief that transnational corporations are essential for providing food and that their interests are aligned with the public interest. Its proponents portray corporations as better equipped than governments and civil society to draw up the rules and policies that shape our food systems. It is a dangerous worldview which allows corporations to control increasing shares of land, water (...)

Box 1 - Multistakeholderism: the new corporate weapon
Multistakeholderism is an evolving model of governance that brings together diverse actors that have a potential ‘stake’ in an issue, in order for them to arrive at a collaboratively formulated agreement or solution. For example, stakeholders in a proposed coal mine could include project affected communities, government officials responsible for approvals, investing companies, project financiers, environmental NGOs, etc. A completely (...)

Voice from the field 1 - Sri Lankan farmers against pesticides
Chintaka Rajapakse, MONLAR (Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform), Sri Lanka
The use of agrochemicals has had disastrous consequences in the past decades. The widespread use of these chemicals has contaminated the soil and the water, which has directly led to the increase in cancers and kidney diseases. Not only has this negatively affected public health, but the overuse of agrochemicals has also undermined food (...)