Ethical Development Action

Thurs 7^th April | Gresham Metropole Hotel, Mac Curtain St., Cork | 7pm |  All Welcome | Free Admission

The population of Dublin is 9 meals away from hunger - if the supermarkets are not re-stocked within 3 days there is nothing left to eat. To celebrate Latin America Week 2011, EDA - Ethical Development Action & LASC  - Latin American Solidarity Centre (LASC) invite you to participate in a public talk that will focus on the alternatives built by the people in Brazil and Ecuador. Carlos Gouveia da Silva (Brazil) & Richard Intriago (Ecuador) are grassroots activists with vast experience and knowledge of the issue.

Climate change predicts greater incidence of extreme weather events any of which may interrupt supplies, peak oil may deprive us of the fuel to power the food system, the financial crisis may deprive us of credit to buy food on the international markets (even if we can afford the prices the speculators’ greed creates) and plummeting genetic diversity makes our crops and livestock increasingly susceptible to infection and predation. Yet our government is happy to leave food supply to the market.

We have been here before. Our abundant grains were exported to fund contracts entered into even as the peasants who harvested them died of hunger along the roadsides when their potato crop failed back in the 1840s.

Ireland may be no more food secure now than it was in 1848 and as for food sovereignty, well, that's not even on the horizon.  Food Sovereignty focuses on food for people, putting the right to food at the centre of government policy on food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries.  It rejects the proposition that food is just another commodity or component for international agri-business.

In Latin America social movements understand the importance of food sovereignty and the right to adequate food is even written into national constitutions. Alternatives to the food crisis are continuously created at a grassroots level to oppose the market-led, globalised food industry.

Speakers:

Richard Intriago, Ecuador

Richard Intriago is part of The Conference on Food Sovereignty. Made up of 8 members, it is an advisory body to the government and the highest authority on Food Sovereignty in Ecuador. He is also President of the Small Farmers Association of the Coast of Ecuador. Under Richard the Federation is very politically active, and was involved in the Constituent Assembly that wrote the Constitution. The Federation also provides training on organic techniques. Outside of his work with the Federation, Richard heads a group of university students that work to promote agroecology and Food Sovereignty. He has studied in Cuba, worked as an advisor to the government in Venezuela and with the MST in Brazil. He has organised conferences and forums on sustainable organic agriculture at a regional level.

Carlos Gouveia Da Silva, Brazil

Carlos is a member of the Associação dos Produtores Autônomos do Campo e da Cidade (Association of Rural and Urban Autonomous Producers), Rio de Janeiro, a grassroots organization set up in the 1980´s by a workers' school of self-management. Its main aim is to create a solidarity link between agricultural workers in the city and countryside. Currently, APAC is involved in rural and urban food growing activists’ networks with an agroecological perspective. APAC is a member of the Agroecology Coordinating Organisation of Rio de Janeiro. This organization brings together grassroots movements working for Food Sovereignty and struggling against the neoliberal policies of the Brazilian agribusiness, genetically modified crops, concentration of land, and the use of pesticides.