Today, we mark the 20th anniversary of the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty.
PCFS was established alongside the draft People’s Convention on Food Sovereignty during the Asia Pacific People’s Convention on Food Sovereignty held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The gathering was a result of the work in Asia of the global agri-trade network on People’s Food Sovereignty in 2001 and the People’s Caravan 2004 process, concretizing the demands of peasants, fisherfolk, and other sectors on the issues of people’s rights to food and the protection of small producers.
Two decades since, our Coalition has developed into a movement committed to developing and promoting people’s food sovereignty in the face of imperialism’s onslaught over our food systems and agriculture throughout these years. Hunger and malnutrition continue to plague the Global South, with our food systems designed to grab land and feed corporate greed. The climate crisis is being exploited to further corporate profiteering. Wars, occupations, and militarism are causing famine.
In recent years, we’ve shown how much we are #Hungry4Change for #OurFoodSystems. We’ve organized the Global People’s Summit on Radical Food Systems Transformation to call for just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable food systems. This was followed by the Global People’s Caravan for Food, Land, and Climate Justice, which resulted in the Rural People’s Development Agenda. It laid down our specific demands to push for radical food systems transformation, dismantle monopoly corporate control over land and resources, and fight climate imperialism—all to #ForwardOurFuture. We also stood our ground against wars of aggression and occupation, and firmly called attention to the starvation of rural communities due to state-perpetrated attacks and bombings.
All of these were made possible thanks to our members and allies—our very own Food Sovereignty Heroes—whom we share this milestone with. With these champions of rural peoples, our Coalition shall carry on with its mission to uphold people’s food sovereignty and empower rural people in the years to come, until rural voices are heard and the right to food is fully realized. ##