Food providers meet in Mali to write the declaration on the international forum for agroecology.
“We have built Agroecology through many initiatives and struggles…Policy makers cannot move forward on Agroecology without us… join us in the collective task of collectively constructing Agroecology as part of our popular struggles to build a better world, a world based on mutual respect, social justice, equity, solidarity and harmony with our Mother Earth.”
– Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology, Feb 27, 2015
Globally, agroecology is being taken up by food providers, social movement, scientists, institutions, and in policy as the most important pathway for healthy and just agriculture and food systems. Yet, agroecology is largely absent from agriculture and food policy at a European level.
What is the relevance of agroecology in European agriculture policy? Why is it marginalized in the CAP? How can the EU support the development of agroecology in Europe and around the world? What do policies to support agroecology ecology look like? How do we feed Europe this way?
These are the questions that the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) are posing at a public debate on Agroecology in the European Parliament on the 17th of September from 9:00 to 13:15, including the participation of farmers, representatives from the EU, social movements and the scientific community. The public debate will be hosted by MEP Lidia Senra Rodríguez (GUE/NGL) and supported by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, UK.
A movement is growing. In February 2015, food providers from around the world gathered in the Nyéléni Centre in Mali to write the Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology which articulates the common vision, principles and strategies of agroecology. In parallel, the FAO is organizing regional forums around the world and is deepening its commitment to agroecology. Agroecology scientists around the world have penned a letter in support of this declaration:
“We stand ready, as scholars, to aid the FAO and the world’s small-scale food producers…providing whatever knowledge and analysis we can to advance a comprehensive agenda on agroecology…”[1]
A groundswell of international efforts are positioning agroecology as the central plank to a sustainable, just and prosperous food system…but will Europe step up the plate in the global effort to develop agroecology?
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WHERE: European Parliament Brussels, Anna Politkovskaya room
WHEN: Thursday, 17 September 2015, from 10:30 to 11:00
SPEAKERS: Lidia Senra, MEP
Jyoti Fernandes, ECVC coordination committee member
Michel Pimbert, Agroecology Centre, Executive Director-Coventry University
To participate at the Press Conference, conduct interviews, video and photos shooting, please contact: Marzia Rezzin at marzia.rezzin@eurovia.org: 0032(0)473 300 156