Democratizing Development: Land, Resources and Markets

Social movements in the Global South are fighting for indigenous and peasant rights, land reform, sustainable agriculture, clean water, fair prices for agricultural goods, and freedom from foreign “dumping” and GMO contamination. Increasingly, they are resisting the onslaught of industrial agrofuels plantations (biofuels). These aspects of the global food system make up the structural conditions that perpetuate hunger and poverty. Without changing these conditions, present successful community-based agroecological alternatives and community food systems will be forever relegated to the margins of our food systems. Changing the structural conditions of the global food regime requires strong social movements capable of bringing together advocates and practitioners for lasting social change.

This program area focuses on the structural causes of hunger and poverty, and bridges the gap between transnational advocacy and local control over food system resources. Like other program areas, Democratizing Development links critiques of the corporate-dominated food systems with farmer and consumer-led alternatives that ensure justice, equity and ecological sustainability. We promote the convergence of local, national and international food movements in their effort to transform food systems worldwide. We work to bring together the overlapping demands for food and climate justice. Our projects include: a campaign with women’s farmer organizations and three major African farmer federations for African alternatives to the Green Revolution called Nous Sommes la Solution! (We are the Solution!); a Food Sovereignty Tours program (http://www.foodsovereigntytours.org/) that brings activists from the industrial North and the Global South together to share information, hope and dialogue; collaboration with Vía Campesina and national organizations in campaigns against land grabs and the spread of GMOs and agrofuels and in favor of land reform, farmer’s rights to seed and Food Sovereignty. As in our other program areas, Democratizing Development has a strong research and publishing arm, dedicated to both informing and amplifying the voices of global-local food movements.

Learn more about Democratizing Development here.