La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants (Paperback)

by Annette Aurelie Desmarais (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Essential reading for all those who seek to understand the worldwide opposition to neoliberal globalisation and the social and environmental destruction wrought by industrial agriculture. The hopes that have propelled peasants and small farmers to cross-border unity and action are on proud display in this moving account." --Marc Edelman, Professor of Anthropology, City University of New York "A ground-breaking study of the rise of a significant new transnational political and social force, the Via Campesina." --Philip McMichael, International Professor of Development Sociology, Cornell University  "How the Via Campesina survived and thrived to champion food sovereignty, gender equity and global grassroots solidarity is an inspiring tale, beautifully told." --Terisa Turner, Associate Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph

Product Description

La Via Campesina is one of the world's largest and most important transnational social movements. Formed in 1993, it brings together rural women, peasants, indigenous communities, small-scale farmers and farm workers from around the world. Comprising millions of people, it is a leading force against the globalization of a neo-liberal and corporate-led model of agriculture. This book explores the movement from the inside. Annette Aurelie Desmarais, a former grain farmer and long time participant in La Via Campesina shows how peasants and small-scale farmers have found the strength to challenge multinational agribusiness corporations and international institutions whose power and influence increasingly dictate government policy. This book accompanies La Via Campesina in a struggle to keep people on the land, producing food and culture, and building viable communities.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press (June 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745327044
• ISBN-13: 978-0745327044
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #955,935 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A movement against agribusiness, bankers & patents on life., July 13, 2008

By	Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Via Campesina is the largest movement in the world, comprising hundreds of thousands of small farmers and indigenous people whose way of life is being wiped out by elite transnational corporate interests. Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, and their collaborators in global financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are systematically displacing farmers and undercutting local economies and food traditions. There have been efforts like Farm Aid that have raised awareness of rural concerns here in the U.S., and films such as the excellent The Future of Food also describe the forces undercutting farmers and the integrity of the global food supply; but this is the only book that I know of that gives attention to the people of Via Campesina who, with very few resources, challenge (often successfully) the globe's corporate overlords.
Some of us are familiar with Jose Bove, the French farmer who bulldozed a McDonalds in protest of their role in advancing the corporate food matrix.
Food for the Future: Agriculture for a Global Age
While there are many people of the "First World" who are members of Via Campesina or are sympathetic to the cause (see civic groups like "Global Exchange"), the majority of its members are in the Global South, a region of the world that gets virtually no coverage in the empire's media (except when there's some disaster). Here is a book that reveals the strength, resourcefulness and courage of peasants. In fact, their movement is quite similar to agrarian revolts that were taking place in Europe during the enclosure of the commons. Books like Levellers and the English Revolution (Socialist Classics) and The Digger Movement In The Days Of The Commonwealth, As Revealed In The Writings Of Gerrard Winstanley: The Digger, Mystic And Rationalist, Communist And Social Reformer (1906) provide wonderful analyses of a history of Anglo culture that needs to be recovered. Maybe then, we'll be more likely to act in solidarity with people waging the same sorts of struggles today.
A few other resources to consider:
Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness
Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed
Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
Third World Resurgence
Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns (Frank W. Pierce Memorial Lectureship and Conference Series)
Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad