"If we can produce our food then we are rich"

Vía Campesina

25/02/2008

Opinión

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From February the 22^nd to the 24^th 2008, about one hundred women farmers from 16 countries from all over the world took part to the seminar organized by ÖBV-Via Campesina Austria on Food and Power ("Macht Essen ", literally "Power Eat").

In Austria, where farms are relatively small, women are very often responsible for the farm while the men work away from home. This is the case in Johanna's farm that we visited on Friday. Johanna has about thirty dairy cows, as well as some pigs and hens, mainly for her own family consumption. She also has a small garden for vegetables. Her farm is organic, like 38% of all farms in the region, which makes it a very special place in Europe.

Johanna's activity reflects the situation of millions of women in the world, whose primary work is to ensure the livelihood for their family and community. Indeed, many women farmers noticed that very often, men are involved in agricultural production when it is integrated in the << visible economy >> -that brings money, that is integrated in the trading system-, while women take part in the << invisible economy >>, which is absolutely essential for the survival of the people, but which is neither economically nor socially recognized as such.

"Livelihood" agriculture feeds the world, and not industrial corporate agriculture. But even so, power is in the hands of those who control the latter, most often men. This contradiction was at the heart of our discussions.

Power is very much linked to control over the means of production, particularly land. Yet, many participants underlined how difficult it was for women to access productive resources. For example in Nicaragua, only 2% of the land is owned by women, which compels most of the women to depend on their husbands to be able to cultivate. In Burkina Faso, while women do almost all agricultural work linked to millet production, they cannot access the mills and they don't get any revenue from the selling of millet. Thus, they are totally dependent on the money their husband decides to give to them. But this situation does not only exist in Southern countries. In Europe too, few women farmers have the official status of farmer, though they do work on the farm. Because of this, they have access to social rights only as the wife of a farmer (specifically for pension, social security, etc...), which makes it very uncomfortable in case of a split. Even within our organizations, unless women struggle for equality, they won't be able to make the decisions.

Livelihood economy undermined

Yet it is not only about a struggle for the rights in relation to men, but also, and maybe mainly, about a struggle to defend and strengthen the livelihood economy in relation to the trade economy. All the women that took part to the seminar underlined how strong the attacks by corporate interests were to take over control of natural resources (land, water, seeds and knowledge) and to prevent peasants from living from sustainable family farming. For example, in Romania and Galicia, selling peasants' products on local markets has to comply with unattainable rules after the entrance into the European Union, which has deprived many women of their only revenue. Everywhere in the world, seed companies push for new laws which forbid farmers from using their own seeds and thus make them completely dependent on the industry.

Destroying the livelihood economy is also done in the name of "expert knowledge" retained by scientists more or less dependent on corporate interests. An Austrian woman told us how difficult it was for her to sell her milk because Austrian sanitary authorities were promoting the idea that raw milk was dangerous for health. Similarly, many small-scales farms cannot slaughter animals on the farm anymore because of sanitary rules. Women are the first victims of this "power of the experts" which denies their own capacity to know what is good or not and which forbids them from acting outside of the framework defined by the institutions.

In the face of these obstacles, all participants emphasized that the power they want is not to rule over other people, but to be able to decide about their own lives. Producing our own food is a key element in this way: "if we are able to produce our food, then we are rich!" one woman said. Women farmers shared how proud they are to produce food for their community, to take care of the land where they live and to implement and share knowledge linked to the production and processing of food. They committed to struggle together to be able to keep cultivating the land and breeding animals, for equality with men and to stop corporate power over our food system.

Via Campesina News
February 2008

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