APN| Amman - Zoom

 31 July 2022

APN President, Razan Zuayter, was invited to give a speech at the Asia meeting of the Peoples Coalition for Food Sovereignty - PCFS, as co-chair of the coalition, and founder of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty.

In her speech, she mentioned the impact of rising food prices and inflation since 1990 on food producers, farmers, agricultural workers, and landless peasants who make up more than two-thirds of the world's extreme poor.

Zuayter emphasized our need to diagnose the fundamental causes of the food crisis by answering two questions, the first is whether this crisis is a coincidence, and the second is whether it is new. She emphasized that the causes of the crisis are not coincidental, they are man-made, and that they are certainly not new as their causes and effects were present long before the Russian Ukrainian war. If the same root causes of high fuel prices, financial speculation, and imperialist wars led to the previous crises in 2008 and 2011, then these root causes will inevitably lead to other escalating crises in the future if we fail to address them.

She pointed out that epidemics and wars increase the state of fragility and vulnerability in marginalized societies, and their painful repercussions will continue until we realize our strengths as movements to change this narrative towards sovereign food systems, adding that the impending crisis is just a reminder that food sovereignty must be a priority for our social, economic, and political security.

In order to prevent the crisis from worsening, Zuayter stated that people should protect and strengthen local food systems by owning and managing resources such as land, water, seeds, energy, etc., in parallel with the urgent need to cultivate basic foodstuffs such as wheat to improve food security and give it priority over crops intended for export. Local food reserves should be built, and regional projects supported, however this necessarily requires vigorous efforts to end wars, conflicts and occupation.

Zuayter urged participating members of PCFS to mobilize organizations of farmers and workers, food producers, women and youth organizations, to unite and take leadership to drive the urgently needed economic and social transformations.