International Solidarity

The NFU and La Via Campesina demand peasant rights NOW

On April 17th each year La Via Campesina (LVC), the international movement of 200 million peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, Indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world, commemorates the massacre of landless peasants in Eldorado dos Carajás, Brazil in 1996. The peasants were slaughtered while struggling Read more

Union Farmer Quarterly: Winter 2019

In this issue: Messages from the Editorial Advisory Committee, President Katie Ward, Women’s President Toby Malloy, Youth President Stuart Oke; reports from First-Time Convention Attendees Introducing Jessie Macinnis, Youth Vice President; Riley Côté-Demerchant, Region 1 Board Member Resolutions passed at the NFU’s 49th Annual Convention, November 22nd to 24th, 2018 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Remembering Brendan Read more

UN Declaration on the rights of peasants formally adopted by General Assembly

La Via Campesina makes history

La Via Campesina makes history as UN Declaration on the rights of peasants is formally adopted by General Assembly, Dec 17, 2018 Read more

Family Farm Organizations From U.S., Canada Oppose Signing Of New NAFTA

The reworked agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico neglects the demands of farm groups

MINNEAPOLIS—The original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been devastating for family farmers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It has promoted global agribusiness interests at the cost of family farmers and contributed to the economic and social erosion of rural communities. Rather than answer the demands of family farm groups across North Read more

UN Adopts Declaration on the Rights of Peasants

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly approved the Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas this afternoon, expressing the widespread support for the promotion and protection of human rights for an often neglected population. It was approved by a recorded vote of 119 in favour to 7 against, with 49 abstentions. Read more

NFU urges Canada to support Declaration for the Rights of Peasants at United Nations

The National Farmers Union (NFU) urges Canada to vote in favour of the United Nations (UN) Declaration for the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas when it goes before the 3rd Committee session of the General Assembly. Read more

Over 200 Global Food Movement Leaders and Organizations Reject “Gene Drives”

Global food movement leaders and organizations representing hundreds of millions of farmers and food workers today set out their clear opposition to “gene drives” – a controversial new genetic forcing technology. A new report, Forcing the Farm, lifts the lid on how gene drives may harm food and farming systems. Read more

NFU calls on the Canadian government to address food insecurity

Saskatoon—On the occasion of World Food Day, the National Farmers Union (NFU) calls on the Canadian government to take action to address food insecurity both nationally and internationally. Read more

World Bank–IMF Guilty of Promoting Land Grabs, Increasing Inequality, says LVC

At a meeting of La Via Campesina facilitated by Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) in Bali, peasant organisations from Asia, Africa, Americas and Europe have unanimously held World Bank and IMF responsible for facilitating large scale land grab, deforestation and ocean grabbing around the world, which has led to inequality, poverty and global hunger. Read more

UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution adopting the peasant rights declaration in Geneva

Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local markets and a lot more. Read more