25 November 2010 | News | Food Sovereignty
Pass the Bill
El Salvador: La Via Campesina demands the passing of a food sovereignty law
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With a mobilization outside the Salvadoran Legislative building, the peasants demanded the discussion and passing of a law to ensure food sovereignty in the Central American country. Food sovereignty is considered by the peasant organizations member of the National Rural Workers Council CNTC-CLOC-VC as the right of people to healthy and culturally adequate food produced with environmentally responsible and sustainable methods. Food sovereignty is the right of governments to define their own food and agricultural policies without damaging the agricultural production of other countries.
These are the arguments used by the leaders of the Council in El Salvador to draft the bill submitted to the Legislative Assembly on March 6th, 2008, which hasn´t received any favorable or unfavorable response yet.
This way, a delegation of 500 peasants took to the streets outside the Presidential Building on Wednesday 24th to demand an answer with reference to the bill.
The organized peasants demanded the passing of the law and a greater participation by MPs in the passing of proposals submitted by the different sectors to Parliament.
The Council, a Salvadoran organization member of La Via Campesina and the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC) submitted a series of initiatives to reaffirm the rights of peasants in El Salvador, according to Rogelio Soltero, member of the Council.
The peasant organizations gathered in the Council expressed their support to “the struggle to pass a food sovereignty law that allows the people to have a healthier food system”, said Carlos Rodriguez, coordinator at the National Rural Workers Council.
Photo: Leonardo Peña Sánchez (CLOC/Vía Campesina Centroamérica)
