INFO ABOUT SOME ACTIVITIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES:

In Austria they made a big pile of sacks of organic (gmo-free) potatoes in one of the main streets of Vienna at the launch of the Food Declaration in March. They had attached the food declaration to each sack and presented those potatoes to passers-by. It was an activity against GMOs and for the Food Declaration.

In Italy  the European Food Declaration was launched in Italy on Sunday 14 March in the context of a very popular fair, “Do the Right Thing". During the two and a half hour event (organized by ItaliAfrica for the Italian Committee for Food Sovereignty) held in the middle of the animated main fair area in Milan we used short interventions by speakers and videos to introduce the public to

- where the idea of food sovereignty comes from,

- what it means to small producers in Italy and in Africa (we had with us two women members of the Mali national peasant platform who had been at Nyeleni),

- how horizontal solidarity between territories in Italy and West Africais being concretized through exchanges and collaboration,

- the kinds of alternative approaches to producing and consuming that are growing up throughout Italy,

- the responsibilities of politics/policies.

We lay the accent on the fact that food sovereignty has to be built up from the base and that it is everybody’s business. All participants were invited to sign the Declaration and to write on a slip of paper how they are helping to build food sovereignty in their daily lives. One of these slips was extracted at the end of the event and the winner was awarded with a handsome basket of organic foods offered by AIAB (Associazione Italiana per l’Agricoltura Biologico).  

In the Netherlands we had national elections on 9th June. We brought out a press release about our food declaration and about the way the different political parties had responded to it. This was to meant serve as a sort of voting advice for the public. We are going to organise some activities together with others around World Food Day.

Please inform us of what has happened and/or is going to happen in your country!