Nyéléni Village, Selingue, Mali

Tuesday 6 March 2007

We, more than 500 representatives from more than 80 countries, of
organizations of peasants/family farmers, artisanal fisher-folk, indigenous
peoples, landless peoples, rural workers, migrants, pastoralists, forest
communities, women, youth, consumers, environmental and urban movements have gathered together in the village of Nyéléni in Selingue, Mali to strengthen
a global movement for food sovereignty. We are doing this, brick by brick,
have been living in huts constructed by hand in the local tradition, and
eating food that is being produced and prepared by the Selingue community.
We give our collective endeavor the name “Nyéléni” as a tribute to and
inspiration from a legendary Malian peasant woman who farmed and fed her
peoples well.

Most of us are food producers and are ready, able and willing to feed all
the world’s peoples. Our heritage as food producers is critical to the
future of humanity. This is specially so in the case of women and indigenous
peoples who are historical creators of knowledge about food and agriculture
and are devalued. But this heritage and our capacities to produce healthy,
good and abundant food are being threatened and undermined by neo-liberalism
and global capitalism. Food sovereignty gives us the hope and power to
preserve, recover and build on our food producing knowledge and capacity.

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally
appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable
methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.
It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food
systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It
defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a
strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food
regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems
determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and
national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven
agriculture, artisanal - fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food
production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and
economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that
guarantees just income to all peoples and the rights of consumers to control
their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage our
lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the
hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social
relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples,
racial groups, social classes and generations.

In Nyéléni, through numerous debates and interactions, we are deepening our
collective understanding of food sovereignty and learned about the reality
of the struggles of our respective movements to retain autonomy and regain
our powers. We now understand better the tools we need to build our movement
and advance our collective vision.

What are we fighting for?

A world where…

– all peoples, nations and states are able to determine their own food
producing systems and policies that provide every one of us with good
quality, adequate, affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate food;

– .recognition and respect of women’s roles and rights in food production,
and representation of women in all decision making bodies;

– all peoples in each of our countries are able to live with dignity, earn a
living wage for their labour and have the opportunity to remain in their
homes;

– where food sovereignty is considered a basic human right, recognised and
implemented by communities, peoples, states and international bodies;

– we are able to conserve and rehabilitate rural environments, fish stocks,
landscapes and food traditions based on ecologically sustainable management
of land, soils, water, seas, seeds, livestock and other biodiversity;

– we value, recognize and respect our diversity of traditional knowledge,
food, language and culture, and the way we organise and express ourselves;

– there is genuine and integral agrarian reform that guarantees peasants
full rights to land, defends and recovers the territories of indigenous
peoples, ensures fishing communities’ access and control over their fishing
areas and eco-systems, honours access and control over pastoral lands and
migratory routes, assures decent jobs with fair remuneration and labour
rights for all, and a future for young people in the countryside;...where
agrarian reform revitalises inter-dependence between producers and
consumers, ensures community survival, social and economic justice and
ecological sustainability, and respect for local autonomy and governance
with equal rights for women and men...where it guarantees the right to
territory and self-determination for our peoples;

– where we share our lands and territories peacefully and fairly among our
peoples, be we peasants, indigenous peoples, artisanal fishers,
pastoralists, or others;

– in the case of natural and human-created disasters and conflict-recovery
situations, food sovereignty acts as a kind of “insurance” that strengthens
local recovery efforts and mitigates negative impacts... where we remember
that affected communities are not helpless, and where strong local
organization for self-help is the key to recovery;

– where peoples’ power to make decisions about their material, natural and
spiritual heritage are defended;

– where all peoples have the right to defend their territories from the
actions of transnational corporations;

What are we fighting against?

– Imperialism, neo-liberalism, neo-colonialism and patriarchy, and all systems
that impoverish life, resources and eco-systems, and the agents that promote
the above such as international financial institutions, the World Trade
Organisation, free trade agreements, transnational corporations,and
governments that are antagonistic to their peoples;

– The dumping of food at prices below the cost of production in the global
economy;

– The domination of our food and food producing systems by corporations that
place profits before people, health and the environment;

– Technologies and practices that undercut our future food producing
capacities, damage the environment and put our health at risk. Those include
transgenic crops and animals, terminator technology, industrial aquaculture
and destructive fishing practices, the so-called white revolution of
industrial dairy practices, the so-called ’old’ and ’new’ Green Revolutions,
and the “Green Deserts” of industrial bio-fuel monocultures and other
plantations;

– The privatisation and commodification of food, basic and public services,
knowledge, land, water, seeds, livestock and our natural heritage;

– Development projects/models and extractive industry that displace people and
destroy our environments and natural heritage;

– Wars, conflicts, occupations, economic blockades, famines, forced
displacement of people and confiscation of their land, and all forces and
governments that cause and support them; post disaster and conflict
reconstruction programmes that destroy our environments and capacities;

– The criminalization of all those who struggle to protect and defend our
rights;

– Food aid that disguises dumping, introduces GMOs into local environments and
food systems and creates new colonialism patterns;

– The internationalisation and globalisation of paternalistic and patriarchal
values that marginalise women, diverse agricultural, indigenous, pastoral
and fisher communities around the world;

What can and will we do about it?

Just as we are working with the local community in Selingue to create a
meeting space at Nyeleni, we are committed to building our collective
movement for food sovereignty by forging alliances, supporting each others’
struggles and extending our solidarity, strengths, and creativity to peoples
all over the world who are committed to food sovereignty. Every struggle, in
any part of the world for food sovereignty, is our struggle.

We have arrived at a number of collective actions to share our vision of
food sovereignty with all peoples of this world, which are elaborated in our
synthesis document. We will implement these actions in our respective local
areas and regions, in our own movements and jointly in solidarity with other
movements. We will share our vision and action agenda for food sovereignty
with others who are not able to be with us here in Nyeleni so that the
spirit of Nyeleni permeates across the world and becomes a powerful force to
make food sovereignty a reality for peoples all over the world.

Finally, we give our unconditional and unwavering support to the peasant
movements of Mali and ROPPA in their demands that food sovereignty become a
reality in Mali and by extension in all of Africa.

Now is the time for food sovereignty!