2013 Food Sovereignty Prize: People, Not Corporations, Feeding the World

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT:

Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau, WhyHunger: (207) 475-7542

Christopher Cook, Food First: (415) 504-0325, communications@foodfirst.org

October 15 Ceremony Will Honor Grassroots Movements

October 4, 2013 – A statement from the Food Sovereignty Prize and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance:

What does food sovereignty look like? The Food Sovereignty Prize, established in 2009 as an alternative to the World Food Prize, recognizes exemplary work that supports local, community-based, democratic food systems. We are proud to announce that this year’s prize has been awarded to the Group of 4 and the Dessalines Brigade/La Vía Campesina.

Together this alliance of Haitian and Latin American peasant organizations and agroecology experts has received special recognition for its work promoting “good farming practices and advocating for peasant farmers.” Among their activities they have worked to replenish traditional seed varieties in Haiti and rebuild local farming systems.

Three additional groups will also be honored in 2013:

• The 6000-member Basque Country Farmer’s Union, for its work with young people to gain a foothold in agriculture, and with small farming communities to survive and grow amid recession;
• The 100,000-member in southern India, which organizes for local food sovereignty by fending off GMO seeds and cultivating traditional drought-resistant grains that nourish farmers’ families and bring vital income; and
• Mali’s National Collective of Peasant Organizations (CNOP), which has created national food sovereignty policies and protected farming communities by fighting landgrabs and defending farmers’ rights to land and water.

The Food Sovereignty Prize was created by the International Links Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition, and is presented by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. The awards ceremony will be held October 15 in New York City, at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of the American Indian.

The World Food Prize, against which the Food Sovereignty Prize was developed as a counterpoint, awarded representatives of Monsanto and Syngenta AG among its 2013 prize recipients this year.

While the World Food Prize emphasizes increased production through technology, the Food Sovereignty Prize champions solutions developed by those most impacted by the injustices of the global food system. In honoring those who are taking back their food systems, the Food Sovereignty Prize affirms that nothing short of the true democratization of our food systems will enable us to end hunger once and for all.

Like previous Food Sovereignty Prize winners such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Korean Women’s Peasant Association, Family Farm Defenders, and La Via Campesina, these 2013 food sovereignty heroes show us that the solutions to hunger and poverty are already here.

Food sovereignty is not about feeding the world with “free” trade, mass-scale mono-crops, and GMOs. It’s about empowering people and communities to control their own food.

For more information about the October 15 awards ceremony, the Food Sovereignty Prize, or the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, please visit:

http://foodsovereigntyprize.org/

http://usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodSovereigntyPrize
Twitter: @foodsovusa, #FoodSovPrize