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This document intends to inform CSM positions towards the  upcoming CFS Policy Process on Agroecology and other innovations. A shorter version of this vision is also included in the new edition 2019 of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition  This text is the outcome of an incredible collective work and was adopted by the CSM Women Working Group that counts with 190 participating organisations in August 2019. It wouldn’t have been possible without the commitment and engagement of many special women.

The EU must urgently reform damaging farming subsidies to stand a chance of saving nature, preventing the worst effects of climate change and reviving small farms and our rural regions, according to the Agriculture Atlas 2019 – a unique publication of facts and figures on the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) published by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe and BirdLife Europe.

The Agriculture Atlas 2019 shows that:

Sustainable small farmers should be put at the core of EU agricultural policy, according to a new paper released today by the Nyeleni Europe and Central Asia Platform for Food Sovereignty [1]. The strongly documented publication comes ahead of a key vote in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee in early April, and represents the position of a pan-European coalition of farmers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples and environmental organizations in regards to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

It is possible for communities, regions and whole countries to fundamentally redesign their food and farming systems – but doing so requires changes in the way communities envision their food systems, the way knowledge is shared, the way that food systems are governed, and the values underpinning them.

This was the message from IPES-Food’s new report, Breaking away from industrial food and farming systems: Seven case studies of agroecological transition.

Food Sovereignty NOW! An in-depth guide

In the following publication, the European Coordination Via Campesina delivers a thorough account of the concept of Food Sovereignty, an approach and process developed by the people most threatened by the processes of the consolidation of power in food and agricultural systems: peasant farmers. Instead of being destroyed by the forces of history they are offering a proposal to solve the multiple crises which humanity is facing.

The 2nd Nyéléni Europe Forum for food sovereignty took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania between 26 - 30 October 2016. The Forum gathered over 500 delegates from 43 countries,  from the Urals and Caucasus, and from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, representing 290 civil society organizations of peasants, fishers, pastoralists, indigenous people, consumers, trade unions, environmental justice, solidarity, human rights organizations, community-based food movements, journalists, and researchers working for food sovereignty in Europe at different levels.

The latest issue of Farming Matters was produced in collaboration with the Nyéléni Europe movement. There is a special section with Food sovereignty stories from Europe.

This issue of Farming Matters is about food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is a self-organised, grassroots response to today’s problematic food and farming system. Diverse people, such as producers, consumers, peasants, migrant farm workers and urban citizens, to name a few, are uniting around initiatives to regain control over their food and natural resources.

On the occasion of the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle, this 17th of April, a large coalition for peasants’ rights appeals for people’s support as negotiations for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas draw near. Although peasants’ systems feed the vast majority of the world’s population, the current industrial food system is undermining small-scale producers.

Nyéléni Polska is an initiative started by the Polish delegation present at the 2nd Nyéléni-European Forum for Food Sovereignty in Cluj-Napoca 2016. The forum gathered delegates from over 40 countries, united in a struggle for fair and sustainable agricultural principles and policies, and against industrial farming.

Peasants and other people working in rural areas, civil society organisations and academics from all over the world gathered from 7-10 March 2017 for the Global Peasants’ Rights Congress in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. The conference kicked off with an international delegation of women performing a 'mystica' to honour International Women's Day.