Porto Alegre points to Food Sovereignty as one of its principal themes of debate

With more than 60,000 participants (trade unionists, ecologists, academics, social movements, politicians, UN agencies, NGOs, etc.), the second World Social Forum, held between 31 January and 4 February in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, added the theme of food sovereignty to the global agenda. Through 29 macro-conferences, 600 seminars and 2000 workshops, the days of Porto Alegre consolidated a new worldwide actor, with plurality, that insisted on the need for generalized debate on questions such as the international market and globalization, the rights of indigenous peoples and sustainable development. From New York, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, wished them a fruitful encounter and warned the audience of the World Economic Forum: "You cannot ignore the attraction of our current rival, which has ended up in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It's title," continued Annan, "World Social Forum, can be interpreted as a criticism of yours, suggesting that you are interested only in economy-profit-and that the social effects of your economic activities are not important to you. And these criticisms are resonating throughout the world."

The conference on Food Sovereignty, held on 2 February, insisted on the idea that liberalization of agricultural commerce, instead of stimulating economic growth, has severely punished the rural zones of developing countries, where 70% of the world poor live. Different speakers denounced the vertical integration process of the food sector and the concentration of a dozen transnational companies with very high percentages of world commerce in sectors such as agro-chemicals or the seed market.

During the thematic meeting, proposals such as the following were made:

• Recognition of the right to food as a fundamental human right.
• Recognition of multi-ethnicity of nations.
• Guarantee of access to sufficient healthy food for all people.
• Implementation of integral processes of land reform.
• Equitable access to productive resources.
• Development and promotion of sustainable food systems.
• Cessation of all unfair commercial practices that set market prices below production costs, applying production and export subsidies

The participants in the meeting also showed their agreement in pointing out the need to encourage the formation of partnerships among the different actors of the society, from the country workers to the consumers, to participate actively in all decision making that affects the food chain.