food, agriculture and gmos strategy meeting

We discussed the BGM decision to ground international activities in the Mobilize, Resist, Transform framework as a strategy for ensuring that campaigns are grounded in the grassroots and that they reflect the work of member organizations. We then mapped the activities that FoE groups conduct in the areas of food, agriculture, and GMOs. Some common themes that emerged included:

1. Monocultures/Plantations; agrofuels, oil palm, deforestation
2. Toxic technology; GMOs, nanotechnology, pesticides, threats of extractive industries (mining etc)
3. Fisheries & aquaculture; destruction of mangroves for industrial aquaculture
4. Sustainable agriculture; large scale and family scale, urban, etc
5. Biosafety policies/laws
6. Traditional knowledge; biopiracy, seeds
7. Territory; land rights and indigenous rights, reclaiming culture
8. Hunger & Food Aid
9. International trade; WTO, dumping cheap products, corporate control of food
10. Water; Scarcity due to industrial use & impacts on farmers, climate change and drought.
    

After a general reflection regarding emerging themes of food sovereignty, fight against hunger, and community rights over food and agricultural resources, participants discussed opportunities and priorities for regional and international collaboration. The results of the meeting were later shared across the FoEI network, and we are now in the process of consolidating a strategic framework for the new program and identifying international campaigns, such as the GMO campaign and the cross-program campaign on agrofuels.