‘Agroecology is a revolution! …we are killing the Earth…the most urgent task we face is the search for ways to protect it. ’ Marlen Sanchez, director, Latin American Agroecology Institute (IALA), Nicaragua
From 11 to 21 July, Friends of the ATC, a solidarity organisation with the Nicaraguan Rural Workers Association (ATC), hosted a ‘Solidarity with Nicaragua’ delegation with twelve participants from the US and UK.
The purpose of the visit was to learn about food sovereignty, agroecology and the struggle for a more just world and how this is being put into practice in campesino/a communities in Nicaragua
ATC representative Fausto Torres explained to the delegation how recovering national sovereignty, land rights, and food sovereignty are inextricably linked. All involve a rupture with dependence: ‘ if people don’t produce the food that they eat they are not free’.
Agroecology is holistic in that it ensures the well being of the natural environmental as well as people. As such it also encompasses social, economic , political, cultural and spiritual elements.
Another crucial element is promoting a sustainable ‘people’s economy’ that links producers and consumers and wrests back control from transnationals.
The Rural Workers Association (ATC) in Nicaragua is a member organisation of La Via Campesina , an international movement of two million small scale farmers committed to agriculture that promotes agroecology, food sovereignty and social justice.
Globalicemos la lucha, globalicemos la esperanza! Globalise struggle, globalise hope!
Link to video about the Latin America Agroecology Institute, Nicaragua http://www.nicaraguasc.org.uk/news/article/365/Nicaragua:-agroecology,-returning-to-the-earth-what-we-take-from-it
