Building communities is often perceived as a very local matter involving a small group of people. In reality, the global economic and social context does as much with community-building as individual involvement and micro level mobilization. With this idea in mind, 148 organizations of peasants and small farmers participate in La Via Campesina (meaning the peasant´s way), a transnational movement promoting and defending rural communities.

The movement, founded in 1993, has become one of the main opponents of the corporate model of agriculture. By favouring corporate control of the land, subsidies to mega-producers, dumping of agricultural products by northern countries, and making wide use of chemicals, its members consider that the actual international system destroys agrarian communities, peasant lives and their most precious resource, land.

The movement in general and every ones of the 148 organisations are trying to build a common sense of identity as peasants. Even if the term might be pejorative in English (the Spanish equivalent “campesino” is not), it refers to people living and working on the land. To protect their livelihood and develop an agriculture serving the population, La Via Campesina proposes an alternative model based on three principles.

Food sovereignty

The idea of food sovereignty goes further than national auto sufficiency as it is often understood. La Via Campesina sees food sovereignty as a right to produce food locally, thus ensuring the well-being and the protection of farmer communities.

Farm based production

The local model promoted by La Via Campesina is the family farm. They argue that this type of organisation is the best to insure both the preservation of land and culture. A family farm favours production for local and domestic markets, this way inserting agriculture in the local economy and avoiding enormous monoculture productions aiming at exportation (meaning exportation of resources and capital as well). It is important to note that La Via Campesina´s understanding of family farm is flexible, since it can differ from one culture to another.

Community control over distribution and transformation

Another element hurting badly peasants all over the world is the heavy concentration ownership of food distribution and transformation. La Via Campesina advocates a wider diversity in the distribution and transformation of food to ensure fair prices for local farmers and a better control over the quality of aliments.

By organizing themselves at different levels of action, they facilitate the implantation of concrete initiatives allowing a better access to credit and market or the creation of cooperatives to enter the distribution and transformation aspects of food production. More importantly, La Via Campesina pressures governments and international agencies to make policy changes, such as agrarian reform, anti-dumping rules, end of subsidies to mega-producers etc. La Via Campesina has become an important actor on the international stage. Even with limited economic resources, it has made its voice heard, so much so that the World Bank is considering agrarian reforms as potentially useful tool to reinforce developing economies. Not that there is much to hope from the World Bank, however, as this neoliberal institution has condemned vehemently agrarian reforms in the past. This shift illustrates the influence of La Via Campesina (amongst other movements) on the world stage.

In my opinion, La Via Campesina represents a great example of community-building on two fronts. It bases its power and support on local or regional organizations trying to push for changes in both international and national contexts. In the last decade, numerous positive initiatives trying to make a difference have failed because they were limited to local actions with local support. The economic context is often the greatest determinant over the well-being of a community. Therefore, citizen initiatives aiming at building better communities must take it into account, and even better, try to influence the economic system they live in. Through La Via Campesina, thousands of peasants/farmers all over the world have understood this and act in accordance.

For more information, visit La Via Campesina web site: www.viacampesina.org
In Canada, both the Union Paysanne and the National Farmers Union are members of La Via Campesina.