The Movement of Small Farmers (MPA)

The Movement of Small Farmers (MPA) is a national movement that successfully practices and advocates for a model of sustainable agriculture that respects the culture of the countryside, emphasizes environmental protection and supports small-scale farmers in generating sufficient income to support their families and produce healthy food for all Brazilians.

Since its formation in 1996, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the MPA's work has spread throughout Brazil. It currently works in 19 of 26 Brazilian states.

Our partners in Guatemala have told us: the current food crisis will continue unless we guarantee the land, water and seeds rights of communities necessary to grow food. The same message is being echoed in Brazil, Mexico and many neighborhoods in the U.S.

In two separate statements, Guatemala's National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC) and Brazil's Small Producers Movement (MPA) put forth food sovereignty as a solution to the crisis: the right of communities to produce food for local markets and for consumers to have access to local healthy foods. Both organizations denounce the expansion of industrial agriculture and growing control of agribusinesses for contributing to the hunger of urban and rural communities.

Grassroots International wishes you a happy International Women's Day!

I want to share with you a declaration from women from the Via Campesina in Brazil. The women are in Porto Alegre, Brazil during the Second World Conference of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development — the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. They have set up a parallel forum entitled, "Land, Territory and Dignity". They set out on a march early this morning to shout out their vision of equal land and water rights for all. It's a very hopeful vision, especially for the multitudes of women around the world denied access to these precious, life-giving resources.