The Food Producers: how can they continue feeding the world?
27 September 2011, Friends House, London
The UK Food Group's 2011 autumn conference looked at the real questions of how small-scale production can respond to the challenges of providing food in ways that eradicate hunger, improve equity and restore the environment.
Most food in the world is grown, raised and harvested by small-scale food producers. Through the framework of food sovereignty they have articulated their vision of how the multiple challenges facing food production can be met sustainably. In the wake of food riots, at a time of a devastating famine, and with growing recognition of the damage done by the industrial food system, we joined representatives of small-scale food producers — to discuss what we in the UK can do to support the food sovereignty model of production.
Listen to the conference
Introduction
Introduction, from the Chair of the UK Food Group, Patrick Mulvany, including a tribute to Wangari Maathai, who died a few days before the event:
Keynote speakers
Norman Leask
was brought up on a croft in Shetland where crofting became second nature for him. Initially he worked as an engineer, coming home every night to tend the animals. In 1977 he went full time to crofting (including salmon farming for several years). Since 2000 Norman and his wife have run a shop in Lerwick. Norman’s love is to rear Shetland sheep and Shetland cattle and produce ‘real’ food. Norman is on the board of the Scottish Crofting Federation where he is the Parliamentary Spokesman, and he represents the UK within Vía Campesina, the international peasant movement.
Ikal Angelei
is a Turkana, from the pastoralist community of Northern Kenya and works on issues of environmental, resource and community rights. She has campaigned to stop the Gibe III hydro-electric dam, as well as doing advocacy on a range of issues affecting pastoralist societies from climate to indigenous people’s rights to animal health services. Ikal is also Director of Friends of Lake Turkana.
- audio (11 mins, mp3, 1.3mb)
Nico Verhagen
is part of the team of the International Secretariat of Vía Campesina, the international peasant movement. Before this, from 1990-1999, he was coordinator of the European Farmers Coordination (now called the European Coordination Vía Campesina).
- audio (24 mins, mp3, 2.9mb)
Mamadou Goďta
is a development socio-economist from Mali. He is currently the Executive Secretary of ROPPA (West African Network of Farmers' Organisations). He serves on the boards and steering committees of several national and international NGOs and is also active in social movements; he was part of the coordination of both the Polycentric World Social Forum of Bamako in 2006 and the World Food Sovereignty Forum in 2007. For many years Mamadou has worked on issues of food sovereignty, cotton, trade, conflict resolution and migration.
- audio (18 mins, mp3, 2.1mb)
Report from Nyéléni Europe
Nyéléni Europe 2011: European Forum for Food Sovereignty was a meeting of 400 people from 34 European countries from the Atlantic to the Urals and Caucasus, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, joined by international representatives from diverse social movements and civil society organisations. They met from in August 2011 in Krems, Austria to take a step forward in the development of a European movement for Food Sovereignty. The delegation from the UK reported back to the UK Food Group:
- audio (12 mins, mp3, 1.5mb)
Discussion
The panel (Mamadou, Ikal and Norman, minus Nico who had to leave, but plus Graciela Romero (War on Want) representing those who went to Nyéléni Europe) then responded to questions from the floor.
- The tough issue of when there is a willingness in the UK to give money and do something, but what is being done is the wrong thing:
audio (14 mins, mp3, 1.6mb) - When mainstream farmers unions claim to speak on behalf of 'farmers' as a whole but in fact concentrate on large scale commercial farmers:
audio (10 mins, mp3, 1.2mb) - Telling the donor what they want to hear - "All Westerners are good for is 'money and things', so all we'll ever ask them for is 'money and things' - they don't understand anything else":
audio (3 mins, mp3, 0.3mb) - The role of bees:
audio (1 min, mp3, 0.1mb) - How can we, in the UK, better promote the role of production espoused by the panel - the food sovereignty model?
audio (15 mins, mp3, 1.8mb) - Final comments from the floor, and close:
audio (7 mins, mp3, 0.8mb)
