European food declaration

Towards a healthy, sustainable, fair and mutually supportive

Common Agriculture and Food policy

www.europeanfooddeclaration.org

We, the undersigned, believe that the European Union needs to meet the urgent challenges Europe is facing regarding food and agriculture. After more than a half-century of industrialisation of agriculture and food production, sustainable family farming and local food cultures have been substantially reduced in Europe. Today, our food system is dependent on under-priced fossil fuels, does not recognize the limitations of water and land resources, and supports unhealthy diets high in calories, fat and salt, and low in fruit, vegetables and grains. Looking ahead, rising energy costs, drastic losses in biodiversity, climate change and declining water and land resources threaten the future of food production. At the same time, a growing world population faces the potential dual burden of widespread hunger and chronic diseases due to overconsumption.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IN EUROPE NOW!

Nyeleni Europe 2011: European Forum for Food Sovereignty

Krems, August 21st

Europe's people are now experiencing the first structural adjustment policies which governments are imposing on their populations that until now have been imposed on peoples in other regions in particular the Global South; this with the sole interest of saving capitalism and those who benefit from it (private banks, investment groups and transnational corporations). All signs are that in the near future these antisocial policies will become more severe and extensive. The first general mobilizations to denounce the economic and governance systems which have brought us to this point have begun and we offer - creatively and energetically – the response of European social movements to confront the model of global agriculture which is the exact reflection of the capitalist system that created it.

27 February 2007

Nyéléni Village, Sélingué, Mali|

|Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni 2007|

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