Our Food, Our Story: Reclaiming the Food Systems Narrative

Over the past few years, ETC Group has been piecing together the larger picture of the puzzle and uncovering in real time the current shifts in governance of global food systems. In their presentation, ETC Group will share the conclusions of their study “Hijacking food systems: technofix takeover at the FSS”, that highlights key aspects and players and frames what is confusing and fast-moving situation into a simplified coherent and creative narrative. Civil society groups, social movements and allies working in the food justice space need to fully understand the forces at play by investigating and interrogating the developments and dynamics in the global food system governance so they can use the knowledge in their work with communities, especially in Southeast Asia.

Speakers:
Neth Daño (ETC Group)
Jim Thomas (ETC Group)
Ronnie Hall (ETC Group)
Moderation: Ayi Kaario (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung)

This discussion forms part of the 4-part online series «Our food, Our story: Reclaiming the Food Systems Narrative.»

Spanish: https://youtu.be/G4qXCwW98Ug

Many of the world’s current food and agricultural systems are in need of transformation – for people, for the environment and climate, and for our shared future. COVID-19 exposed, even more, that the distribution and commercialization of food is highly concentrated and inequitable. A conversational online event, with a long plenary Q&A that brings together social movements and civil society organisations, and authors of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung publication «Crash Barriers forpost-COVID-19 food and agricultural systems», representing perspectives from Asia (India and Philippines) and the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, and the US).

Speakers:
P S Vijayshankar (Samaj Pragati Sahayog, India)
Matheus Gringo de Assunção (MST and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Brazil) 
Qiana Mickie (QJM Multiprise, USA)
Ang Cheatlom (Associate lawyer and ecological farming advocate, Cambodia)

Moderation: Patricia Lizarraga (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung) and Refiloe Joala (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung)

Video in spanish: https://youtu.be/cBd2Fzw8gOo

Independent Expert Evaluations confirm that the Alliance for a Green Revolution Has Failed

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and its technical fixes play a key role at the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). AGRA's President, Dr Agnes Kalibata, for instance, is a Special Envoy to the summit. AGRA, registered in the US was founded in 2006 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others with the vision of doubling agricultural yields, the incomes of 30 million small-scale food producer households, and halving both hunger and poverty in 20 African countries by 2020. In their recently released background paper, civil society organizations from Burkina Faso, Germany, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia unmask the AGRA myth: AGRA’s approach has failed.
Speakers from different African countries, Germany, and the US will report on the AGRA threats to small-scale food producers and showcase the failure of the billion-dollar program.

Speakers:
Million Belay (AFSA, Uganda)
Timothy Wise (IATP, USA)
Anne Maina (BIBA, Kenya)
Mariann Bassey (ERA/FoEN, Nigeria)
Lena Bassermann (INKOTA-netzwerk, Germany)
Roman Herre (FIAN Germany)

Moderation:
Jan Urhahn (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung) and Josephine Koch (Forum on Environment and Development)

Will the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) be a positivestep towards the necessary transformation of food systems? Against the backdrop of the urgent need for democratization of the United Nations, will this summit truly include the voices of peasants, farmworkers, rural social movements and civil society in shaping future food policies?

The agenda of the UNFSS and the strong drive of corporate interests are of great concern for civil society movements defending the principles of agroecology and food sovereignty, especially in light of the food crises that COVID-19 has added to. How can we ensure that UN policies address the issues that are actually relevant? We want to bridge the gap from the local to the global perspective and make the case that rebalancing food systems is of paramount importance, all the more so as the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the failures of the corporate food system to address hunger, inequality and the ecological crisis. A side event to the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on the outcomes of
the UNFSS Pre-Summit held in July and just before the UNFSS begins.

video in spanish/vídeo en español: https://youtu.be/cjR-BDc_3yo

video in french/video en français: https://youtu.be/yTqMtGppJ5c