Category Archives: Policy

Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition – account of symposium hosted by the FAO

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Maria Alicia MendoncaBy Maria Alice Mendonça, PhD-student Rural Development at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil) and guest PhD at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University

During the days 18 and 19th of September, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations) hosted the International Symposium of Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition, in Rome, Italy. See the FAO webpage for more information on participants, presentations, poster, videos and so on.

The conference was attended by over 400 people. Amongst them were academics and representatives from government and social movements from all over the world. The aim was to discuss agroecology in the context of global debates and strategies related to: food security, sustainable agriculture and local food systems. The symposium was divided in three parts. The first was a plenary session with presentations by experts at the forefront of scientific research and bystate officials involved in the construction and implementation of innovative policies on Agroecology and Food Security. This was followed by parallel sessions where social movements, such as La Via Campesina and the Articulation in Brazilian Semiarid – ASA, as well as academics and government representatives shared on the ground experiences with Agroecology in diverse countries. At the closing session, State’s ministries of France, Nigeria, Japan, Senegal, Costa Rica, Brazil (video message), the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Union (video message) and the FAO’s general director, José Graziano da Silva made their statements and commitments to Agroecology and Food Security. Continue reading →

Nieuwe collectieven agrarisch natuurbeheer in oprichting

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Op 5 september is het Drents collectief opgericht door ANV Drenthe en LTO Noord, lees het persbericht voor meer info. Het is de eerste van naar verwachting nieuwe 40 collectieven die in Nederland worden opgericht om invulling te geven aan het nieuwe Natuur en Landschapsbeleid vanaf 2016. Dit is te volgen via het Portaal Natuur en Landschap met achtergrond informatie over het nieuwe N&L beleid en de collectieve aanpak, nieuws en ook een serie videoblogs, waarvan de laatste gaat over het Drents collectief.

Ede in kaart – uitwerking visie rond thema ‘Sociaal en Gezond’ door studenten WU

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Een groep studenten heeft in kader van ‘Academic Consultancy Training’ een opdracht uitgewerkt voor de gemeente Ede. Afgelopen vrijdagochtend is dat aan de gemeente gepresenteerd en in de middag ook aan onze leerstoelgroep op zorgboerderij Makandra in Ede. Hieronder de Samenvatting. Voor meer informatie: hanne.bookelmann@wur.nl.

Ede strategie

Samenvatting De gemeente Ede heeft in 2014 de visie ‘Ede, de Proeftuin voor Food’ opgesteld. Voor het uitdragen van deze visie is een samenwerkingsverband aangegaan dat bestaat uit de gemeente Ede, het NISB, de academische werkplaats AGORA en de Alliantie Voeding Gelderse Vallei. Het opstartende karakter van het samenwerkingsverband vraagt om een eerste stap in het concretiseren van de voedselvisie. Naar aanleiding daarvan is een projectteam vanuit de Wageningen University ingeschakeld. Het doel van het eindresultaat is een aanzet te geven voor de invulling van de strategische agenda voor het realiseren van de visie ‘Ede, de Proeftuin voor Food’ op het thema ‘Sociaal en Gezond’.

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Regulation of Participatory Guarantee Systems in Brazil: Achievements and Challenges

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Maria Alicia MendoncaBy  Maria Alice F. C. Mendonça, Ph.D. student in Rural Development at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil and Wageningen University/The Netherlands

Below my contribution to the IFOAM Global newsletter on Participatory Guarantee Systems published bimonthly. See the IFOAM PGS webpage for more information. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems that certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.

The Brazilian regulation for organic and agroecological production was introduced in the 1990’s in response to international restrictions on Brazilian organic products. Nevertheless, the agroecological movement stayed prominent and actively participated in discussions and negotiations with the government. As a result of this interaction between government and the agroecological movement, a series of laws, decrees and federal regulatory instructions for organic and agroecological production was enacted, e.g. the Organic Law and its respective regulatory instructions. Moreover, the National Policy on Organic Production and Agroecology (Política Nacional de Agroecologia e Produção Orgânica) and the National Action Plan for Organic Production and Agroecology (Plano Nacional de Agroecologia e Produção Orgânica) were released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. They settle the strategies for government investments in the expansion of agroecological production.

Currently, Brazilian farmers have three options to ensure the organic and agroecological quality of their produce: 1) Third-party certification; 2) Participatory Assessment Bodies; and 3) Social Control Organizations. These last two are systems operate at a local level and rely on the active participation of stakeholders. However, only the Participatory Assessment Bodies are considered as Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in the legal sense and authorized for the use of the national organic label, which is required for non-direct sales of organic products. In contrast, the Social Control system does not grant the right to use the national label and allows only the direct sale from small-scale family famers to the final consumers.

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From corporate control to food democracy – Food Otherwise video

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Watch the video recorded during the 2014 Food Otherwise conference in Wageningen University, Netherlands. Interviews with activist Vandana Shiva, prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg and coordinator Europe for Via Campesina Hanny van Geel. See voedselanders.nl for more information on the conference.