A delegation of peasants of La Via Campesina International who began a caravan in Togo, will arrive in Dakar on the eve of the World Social Forum’s opening day on February 5th.

The organization issued a press release saying “In a time when food prices are increasing and there is a threat of a new food crisis, La Via Campesina will support food sovereignty as a solution to the food and climate crisis”.

They add that 70 delegates from peasant organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will join this forum, a place where social movements and civil society organizations will debate about alternatives for a better world, will discuss about their ideas and will make proposals and share experiences.

La Via Campesina will also have a stand at the World Social Forum with international publications. It will also be a meeting point for the members of the peasant movement and a space to exhibit native seeds preserved and multiplied by the peasants as the alternative to industry agriculture promoted by transnational corporations.

Another issue in the peasant movement’s agenda during the Forum in Dakar, will be the installation of the International Agriculture and Animal Resources Marketplace (FIARA), where they will exhibit their food products and native seeds and will debate on crucial aspects of the global agenda such as land grabbing and its relation with the food and climate crises.

FIARA is a dynamic place for the integration of African people through local markets and exchange says La Via Campesina.

The actions of La Via Campesina and its allies, like Friends of the Earth International at the WSF 2011 will seek to expose the damages implied in AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa). AGRA’s sponsors include the Rockefeller Foundation and The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It promotes agriculture based on industrial seeds and agrotoxics, with the pretext of fighting poverty in Africa. La Via Campesina, which has 200 million peasant members in the five continents, claims that AGRA “privatizes the African resources and that the African countries might lose their chance to decide on their own future”.

Phto: www.attac.es