UISTAACT AND WORKER'S ROMANIA ASSOCIATION took part in International Forum for Food Sovereignty

 UISTAACT AND WORKER'S ROMANIA ASSOCIATION took part in International Forum for Food Sovereignty

From the 26^th till the 31^st October, Eco Ruralis Association, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, has organized the Nyéléni Europe Forum for Food Sovereignty.

The Forum was the biggest convergence for cooperation and creating common strategies on food and agriculture of food sovereignty movements across more than 42 countries in Europe and Central Asia, being the second time when such a wide forum for food sovereignty took place in Europe, after the first edition in 2011, in Krems, Austria. 

In the last five years, in Europe, this strategic process fed in the civil society’s contribution in taking decisions for public policies. At international level, peasants consolidated their role in the Civil Society Mechanism of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO; at European level, through the group for social dialogue of the European Commission for Agriculture – DG AGRI, peasant agriculture was directly represented in Common Agriculture Policy reforming process. At national level, peasants had been more and more active decision making processes.

The Forum brought toghetter in Cluj-Napoca over 600 participants – national delegations constituted by peasants, fishers, pastoralists, beekeepers, indigenous people, organized consumers, environmental/ human rights/ solidarity/ justice civil organizations, agricultural workers, researchers, journalists from countries such as France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Romania, Belarus, Estonia, Armenia, Kosovo, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Tajikistan etc. 

The Forum aimed at facilitating an inclusive space for exchanging of good practices, skills and experiences within the movement, building a common understanding of food sovereignty, as well as for enlarging and strengthening the food sovereignty movement in Europe and its political actions.

During the five days of the meeting, the agenda was structured in plenaries and thematic panels approaching the following five thematic axes, essential for realizing food sovereignty in Europe:

• Food production and consumption: changing how food is produced and consumed;
• Food distribution: changing how food is distributed;
• Work and social conditions: valuing and improving work and social conditions in food and agriculture systems;
• Natural resources and commons: reclaiming the right to natural resources and our commons;
• Public policies: changing public policies governing our food and agriculture systems.

The Forum also included a daily peasant market, opened to the general public, where peasant families producers and artisans in the Cluj region sold their products. Every evening, lovely cultural activities took place, as well as food and agriculture - related film projections. Beside the official program, fields visit in the countryside have been organized, in Alba and Cluj counties.

Please find attached photos during the Cluj meeting

Kind regards,

On behalf of UISTAACT and Worker's Romania,

Ciprian POP