{"id":195853,"date":"2021-09-27T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T11:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=195853"},"modified":"2021-09-25T10:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T09:00:42","slug":"protesters-around-the-world-target-global-corporate-food-empire-demand-un-cut-ties-with-world-economic-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/09\/protesters-around-the-world-target-global-corporate-food-empire-demand-un-cut-ties-with-world-economic-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters around the World Target Global Corporate Food Empire, Demand UN Cut Ties with World Economic Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People\u2019s movements and civil society groups say the United Nations Food Systems Summit is a platform for consolidating corporate control over food and agriculture, and perpetuating neoliberal food systems that wreak havoc on the lives of small food producers, who supply 80% of the world\u2019s food.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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23 Sep 2021 – <\/em>Street and online people\u2019s protests against the \u201cglobal corporate food empire<\/a>\u201d greeted the opening of the UN Food Systems Summit (UN FSS), as the Global People\u2019s Summit (GPS) on Food Systems launched a Global Day of Action on the third and final day of its counter-summit to the UN FSS happening virtually and in New York.<\/p>\n

The International League of People\u2019s Struggles (ILPS), International Women\u2019s Alliance and International Migrants Alliance protested in front of the UN headquarters in New York to denounce the corporate capture of the UN and the \u201cglobal corporate food empire\u201d led by agrochemical, food and agribusiness transnational corporations and multi-billionaire Bill Gates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UN FSS is being criticized by people\u2019s movements and civil society as a platform for consolidating corporate control over food and agriculture and perpetuating neoliberal food systems that have wreaked havoc on the lives of small food producers, especially from the Global South, who supply 80% of the world\u2019s food.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to bring the demands of peoples from the Global South for just, equitable, healthy and sustainable food systems to the doorstep of the world\u2019s policymakers. For over a year, the UN has ignored the people\u2019s calls to sever its ties with the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it has worked ever closer with the global elite and has co-opted policy frameworks to serve corporate interests. We are here to say, enough! The people will resist this path to greater destruction of our livelihoods, health, cultures and the planet,\u201d said Nina Macapinlac, ILPS North America coordinator.<\/p>\n

In Jakarta, eight activists were arrested while holding a rally in front of the presidential palace. Led by the Front Perjuangan Rakyat (FPR), Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria and ILPS Indonesia, the protesters from workers, peasants, youth and the urban poor slammed policies that worsen hunger amid the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Indonesian government must be responsible for sufficient and affordable food in villages and cities, support for production by peasants and fair prices. The government must stop the construction of the Food Estate to fulfill national food supplies. Our food must be produced by our peasants and not foreign corporations,\u201d said Dimas Symphati, FPR secretary general.<\/p>\n

Symphati was among the activists arrested, along with Kurniawan Sabar, executive director of people\u2019s research group INDIES and steering council member of People\u2019s Coalition for Food Sovereignty (PCFS)-Asia. The activists are still detained at the Central Jakarta Police Station.<\/p>\n

According to FPR coordinator Rudi HB Daman, the arrest is a prime example of how power relations are at play when it comes to food systems. \u201cHow are we assured that the UN FSS will hear our demands when political repression, like this very experience, is not even discussed as an issue in our current food systems?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe appeal to the Indonesian government to immediately release the activists who were merely exercising their rights to free speech and assembly. We are protesting precisely this kind of suppression of the people\u2019s will. The world is watching. We hope that the Indonesian authorities realize that arresting people for joining a global action to assert the people\u2019s right to food and development\u00a0 amid worsening hunger will only bring them condemnation and shame,\u201d said Razan Zuayter, global co-chairperson of PCFS, in behalf of the GPS Organizing Committee.<\/p>\n

In the Philippines, fishing communities led by Pamalakaya<\/a> (National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organization in the Philippines) held a die-in protest in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources against an impending demolition of mussel farms by small fisherfolk in Cavite province.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are to transform food systems for the benefit of food producers, the UN FSS must address the issue of land and resource grabbing by big corporations. Governments like that of Duterte\u2019s, which are hell-bent on destroying sources of food and livelihood in the name of profit, must be stopped,\u201d said Ronnel Arambulo, Pamalakaya spokesperson.<\/p>\n

International groups behind the GPS that are based in the Philippines also joined the protest.<\/p>\n

According to Beverly Longid, global coordinator of the International Indigenous People\u2019s Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation, \u201cThe role of the Global People\u2019s Summit is to tackle the core problem of neoliberal attacks on people\u2019s right to food and to produce food. We in the GPS believe that only farmers, not corporations, have the power to genuinely change our food systems. The hungry and marginalized are hungry for change!\u201d<\/p>\n

National People\u2019s Food Systems Summits were also held in Pakistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Sept. 22, which came up with demands and action plans for radical food systems transformation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UNFSS is reinforcing corporate control over food and agriculture through advancing neoliberal policies and false solutions (e.g. food fortification, genetic modification, industrial meat production systems, monocultural food production) to climate change<\/a>, hunger and malnutrition.<\/p>\n

These corporate-driven approaches are marginalizing, criminalizing and co-opting indigenous knowledge as well as eroding biodiversity,\u201d said Wali Haider of the Asian Peasant Coalition.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Women\u2019s Forum held community mobilizations and an organic millets food festival led by Dalit women in Tamil Nadu, India. In Svay Rieng, Cambodia, farmer mobilizations at the village-level were held by the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people from around the globe participated in online Global People\u2019s Summit side events that discussed people\u2019s food sovereignty, people-led agroecology, and localization of food systems as among the pillars of food systems transformation.<\/p>\n

Citizens from around the globe are also participating in a social media rally using the hashtags #OurFoodSystems and #Hungry4Change<\/p>\n

At the closing session of the GPS, representatives of people\u2019s movements from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and West Asia-North Africa will present action plans drawn from the thematic, regional, sectoral and national events held since early this year.<\/p>\n

A People\u2019s Declaration for the radical transformation of food systems will also be adopted.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Sustainable Pulse is a global news outlet covering sustainable agriculture, GMOs and pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – sustainablepulse.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 Sep 2021 – People\u2019s movements and civil society groups say the United Nations Food Systems Summit is a platform for consolidating corporate control over food and agriculture, and perpetuating neoliberal food systems that wreak havoc on the lives of small food producers, who supply 80% of the world\u2019s food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":195854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[229,842,952,2352,1913,1121,232,120,519,354,849,401,248,932,1055,931,929,1200,1122,1455,985,124,2204],"class_list":["post-195853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","tag-activism","tag-agri-food","tag-agriculture","tag-big-food","tag-bill-gates","tag-biodiversity","tag-capitalism","tag-conflict","tag-ecology","tag-economics","tag-ecosystem","tag-environment","tag-farming","tag-genetic-engineering","tag-genetic-manipulation","tag-gmo","tag-monsanto","tag-natures-rights","tag-organic-food","tag-seeds","tag-social-justice","tag-united-nations","tag-world-food-programme-wfp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}