WhyHunger stands in solidarity with the hundreds of grassroots organizations and social movements, representing over 380 million people around the globe, that are directly denouncing and protesting the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit. Calling out the corporate takeover of the summit, more than 300 organizations of small-scale food producers, scholars, and Indigenous Peoples’ will gather online from July 25th-28th to launch a global counter-mobilization against the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit stating, “the Summit is disproportionately influenced by corporate actors, and lacks transparency and accountability mechanisms. It diverts energy, critical mass and financial resources away from the real solutions needed to tackle the multiple hunger, climate and health crises.”
WhyHunger stands with this international movement of peasants, farmers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, landless farmers and workers, migrants, fisherfolk, food and agricultural workers, consumers and urban food insecure folks, and with the people who are on the ground, feeding the world, defending land and water and protecting our planet. We believe that nutritious food is a basic human right and that our food system must prioritize people and the planet over profits. We join these grassroots leaders in denouncing the corporate takeover of the UN Food Systems Summit.
We denounce the sidelining of global social movements and the small-scale food producers, who are responsible for nourishing 70% of the global population, from this process. We know that it is their leadership and wisdom that is key to achieving a just, hunger free world for us all. The Summit’s agenda, pre-determined by corporate powers such as The World Economic Forum and the Gates Foundation, and without the voice of those most knowledgeable with true solutions, will not move the needle on hunger, climate justice or the right to food.
Food sovereignty and agroecology are the path towards feeding the planet in a sustainable way and it is absolutely critical the voices and contributions of these knowledge keepers be prioritized and respected at all levels with the food system and food system dialogues.
This is what the right to food means to WhyHunger: people with the most at stake are at the decision-making table. Throughout this process, we will continue to share what our partners are saying and experiencing about this Summit and amplify their perspectives and experiences.
To learn more or to participate in The People’s Counter-Mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems from July 25-28th visit: https://www.foodsystems4people.org/
To hear from social movement leaders about why they are boycotting the Summit, watch this video from La Via Campesina.
