In Desmarais’ discussion of La Via Campesina, African farmers were not as represented as farmers from other continents. She remarked that this is because African leaders wanted to establish a stronger regional identity and presence as small farmers before joining in the global movement. While this is not necessarily an article, I wanted to take this opportunity to draw attention to the African regional effort to establish food sovereignty and small farmer rights against land grabs and seed patents (exactly in line with La Via Campesina, just on a regional rather than global scale). The
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa is a platform for mutliple organizations fighting for the rights of small farmer and African indigenous peoples. One of the most intersting concepts they focus on is “
seed sovereignty.” I think this is a crucial terminology to include in the discussion of peasant and small farmer rights. Desmarais also discusses this concept (big business is controlling seed patents, making farmers dependent on the market for means of production – seed sovereignty thus is the right of small farmers to control their own seeds rather than relying on the market), but the phrase is crucial I think so that this discussion can be more widely known.