Radio Mundo Real

In the eve of the climate talks that will take place in Copenhagen as part of the COP 15, la Via Campesina published an open letter saying the real solutions to climate change are sustainable agriculture and local food production.

The letter of the grassroots organization says that peasant agriculture captures carbon and uses less machinery that work on fossil fuels.

It also says that if the consumers buy their food in the local market, less energy is used to transport them.

The letter reads “As a result of the big impact of industrial agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions, a massive conversion of industrial monoculture to small scale sustainable agriculture as well as developing local markets, will contribute to a massive reduction of greenhouse gases”.

La Via Campesina says these elements, combined with a program that aims to reduce consumption, would render the discussion on carbon markets or bioengineering irrelevant.

It adds that these things should be considered in Copenhagen.

The letter also says that the peasants will go to Copenhagen to put their proposals for consideration.

La Via Campesina has always considered civil disobedience as once of its main strategies to fight for food sovereignty.

“When hundreds of peasants occupy a territory taken by a transnational corporation, when thousands gather outside the WTO to demand the end of the liberalization of the agriculture markets, they are defending their right to live. Their right to feed the world, to feed themselves.

Their right to be respected and to get out of poverty”, reads the letter.

They also reject violence in all its expressions, either as a method of action or to implement the agreed policies behind closed doors.

Finally, the letter calls all the social movements to mobilize in Copenhagen to strengthen democracy through their demands and the pursuit of climate justice.