Thread by @RuthHallPLAAS

WORLD FOOD DAY
Friday 16 October 2020

"Food is our right: the struggle for equitable food systems"

Register here or follow the link to watch on Facebook
#WorldFoodDay #WFD2020 #AfricanFoodSystems #RightToFood @CovidCoalition @PLAASuwc @FoodSecurity_za
plaas.org.za/world-food-day…

Here's the programme for today's WorldFoodDay social dialogue on the #RightToFood and equitable #foodsystems with @FIANista @NETRIGHT @EsaffHQ @MasifundiseDT @abahlali_abm @FoodSecurity_za @boamonjane @afs_asa

Today on #WorldFoodDay we will be hearing from leading activists and academics from Africa and beyond about how the #RightToFood requires change in our food systems - something long evident in African agriculture @FutureAgrics @IDS_UK

We see massive regressive measures in terms of the #RightToFood in many countries, in the midst of #COVID__19. Like dismanting social protection in Brazil & USA. Relaxing of food imports & new land grabs. Says Sofia Monsalve of @FIANista at today's dialogue on #WorldFoodDay2020

COVID is a contradictory development for food systems - there is an increase in repression and criminalisation of people protesting against dispossession and environmental destruction. In Colombia, it's been used to bring back war. Philippines, Honduras, Mexico too.

You can also follow the #WorldFoodDay2020 dialogue on the right to food and food systems here: web.facebook.com/watch/?v=47205…

The Indian hunger story:
Sagari Ramdas of the Indian #foodsovereignty movement says the vast swathes, 490 million landless citizens who depend on their labour for livelihoods have suffered the most during #COVID__19. The face of landlessness is #dalit - it's a caste system.

The commodification of land is the basis for corporate control over the entire food system.

- Sagari Ramdas, Indian food sovereignty movement

#WorldFoodDay #WorldFoodDay2020 #RightToFood #WFD2020 #AfricanFoodSystems

Wow, an electric opening session with 2 leading women #RightToFood and #foodsovereignty activists from Colombia & India, moderated by @boamonjane of @PLAASuwc, at the #WorldFoodDay2020 dialogue underway now.

Now Patricia Blankson Akakpo of the Network for Women's Rights in Ghana explains how women farmers, fishers, traders have been marginalised due to #COVID__19 lockdown measures. Women control both much local and cross-border food trade in West Africa..... but unable to move goods.

Moenieba Issacs of @PLAASuwc is now asking women from Ghana and Tanzania to explain how the #RightToFood is affected by #COVID__19. It's clear that some #Africanfoodsystems are more resilient than other. We need to learn! @afs_asa

It's deeply ironic that many of the African women who are involved in farming and fish and other of food trade are vulnerable to hunger, as #COVID__19 closes down parts of #Africanfoodsystems. Editrudith Lukanga of African women fish traders' network in #Tanzania #WorldFoodDay

Smallholder farmers are demanding that African governments recognise the #RightToFood as a legal and enforceable right, says Joe Mzinga of @EsaffSa, at #WorldFoodDay2020 dialogue on #Africanfoodsystems.

(don't you just love the farmer with a hoe attacking the #COVID virus?)

Now let's hear what's happening with the #RightToFood in South Africa.....

When trying to deal with massive inequalities like in SA - of incomes, assets, information and transparency.... undermine #foodsecurity especially in a crisis like #COVID - says Prof. Julian May @FoodSecurity_za

There's a danger that food corporate concentration is on the rise.

The problem with the food crisis responses to #COVID is both that access was so uneven and unfair, but also that the content of the food was so poor - not nutritious, not supporting local #foodsystems, says Julian May.

The next pandemic is already underway: malnutrition among children not yet born. The next #COVID impact will be evident in infant mortality and undernourishment in the coming year, says Julian May of @FoodSecurity_za at #WorldFoodDay2020 dialogue. We're jeopardising a generation.

South Africa is an outlier in terms of extreme poverty... one of the poorest countries in Africa, if you look at the % of people who are in extreme poverty and face hunger. Don't look at GDP. To understand the #RightToFood, look at who's vulnerable to hunger. @FoodSecurity_za

SA shows the risks of rising incomes without change in #Africanfoodsystems ..... the double burden of #hunger and #malnutrition. The #RightToFood requires #foodsystem change.

The shack dwellers' movement in SA, @abahlali_abm, is insisting that the #RightToFood cannot be achieved without people getting access to land. It cannot be realised through the market. People must have autonomy and choices, says Lindokuhle Mnguni at #WorldFoodDay2020

Here's the kicker: women farm workers can't afford to eat the food they produce. Just in case you thought SA's food system was okay. It's not. Devastating testimony from Denia Jansen of Mawubuye, a movement of workers & small-scale farmers, at #WorldFoodDay2020 dialogue @PLAASuwc

Denia has a list of what people need: land, water, seeds, time, freedom. That's what the Rural Women's Assembly is demanding. The only thing that's cheap during #COVID19 is processed maize - nutritional food is out of reach. Women want to have control of food. It's a #RightToFood

The fight for the #RightToFood is complex and to develop adequate strategies & tactics requires clear debate and political consciousness. How to balance campaigning/litigation vs building alternatives on the ground? Sagari Ramdas says it like it is at #WorldFoodDay2020 @PLAASuwc

@threadreaderapp unroll

@threadreaderapp unroll