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Christina Schiavoni
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16th Annual Food Sovereignty Prize Awarded By US Food Sovereignty Alliance
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and La Via Campesina – Arab Region and North Africa are Recognized
WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2024 — The US Food Sovereignty Alliance is thrilled to award the annual Food Sovereignty Prize to two outstanding organizations, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), in Chicago, and La Via Campesina’s Arab region and North Africa (ArNA).
The Food Sovereignty Prize serves as a counterweight to the World Food Prize initiated by Norman Borlaug, the controversial ‘father of the Green Revolution,’ due to its devastating environmental and social impacts. Typically, the World Food Prize rewards the expansion in production of single crops through expensive, large-scale technology. In contrast, the Food Sovereignty Prize champions grassroots, agroecological solutions from the people most harmed by the injustices of the global food system. This is the 16th year that the Food Sovereignty Prize has been awarded.
Celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, LVEJO was formed in 1994 to address the root causes of environmental and social injustice in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. One of the densest communities in Chicago, the population of Little Village is primarily Latinx and Black and has a disproportionately high rate of families living below the poverty line. LVEJO has supported many successful, community-led campaigns to support the health and safety of Little Village residents. Through four programs – Farm Food Familias Mutual Aid Program, Backyard Gardens Little Village, Semillas de Justicia Community Garden, and La Villita Farm – LVEJO works for food justice practices that eliminate the root causes of hunger, poverty, and other conditions leading to food insecurity.
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization said: “Our food justice work focuses on addressing the harms of the past, practicing food creativity and accessibility in the present, and radical imaginings for a sovereign future. From liberating formerly contaminated sites and transforming them into agroecological spaces, to delivering free meals to community, setting up food gardens in residents’ homes, and hosting cooking classes, our work relies on the cultural strength, and Indigenous farming practices of the predominantly Mexican and immigrant community in Chicago.”
The Arab region and North Africa (ArNA) is the tenth and newest regional member of the global peasant movement La Via Campesina. LVC ArNA includes eight farmers’ organizations in Sudan, Mauritania, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, and Tunisia. Their mission includes improving the conditions of small-scale farmers and agricultural workers in the region by unifying efforts to advance food sovereignty, human rights, and justice through traditional food systems and farming methods.
La Via Campesina ArNA said: “The atrocities and acts of genocide unfolding in Arab and North African countries cannot be separated from the objectives of the colonial project in the region, which seeks to control its natural resources and deprive its people of sovereignty, especially food sovereignty, to keep them dependent, submissive, and subjugated. Our region is working for freedom, dignity, and sovereignty, and to end the oppression of the Palestinian people, who continue to face the most brutal forms of colonialism, settlement, and persecution.”
This award is especially poignant this year amid intense global strife. The ongoing assaults in Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, and elsewhere reveal how withholding access to food and farmland is wielded as a weapon of war and oppression. The social movements within these regions have demonstrated remarkable courage and resilience. For those facing violent attacks, food sovereignty transcends mere survival and represents a vital means of self-determination and justice, centering life and reminding us of our collective humanity.
LVEJO and La Via Campesina ArNA will be recognized at a virtual prize ceremony on Thursday December 12th, at 8:30AM PST/ 11:30 AM EST. The ceremony is free and open to the public – register online here. Spanish and Arabic interpretation will be available, and the ceremony will be recorded for those unable to attend live.
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The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) is composed of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based and food producer groups that work to connect our local and national struggles to the international movement for food sovereignty. The Alliance strives to end poverty, rebuild local food economies and assert democratic control over the food system, believing that all people have the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced in an ecologically sound manner.
Source: https://usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/16th-annual-food-sovereignty-prize-awarded/