***English below***
Ben je bekend met de Movimento Sem Terra (MST)? In Brazilië strijden landloze boeren voor toegang tot land. Ontstaan vanuit een beweging die land terug in bezit nam nadat het door overheersers van hen was afgenomen is de beweging inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een serieuze speler in de landbouw. Een delegatie van melkveehouders van de MST toert door Europa om ervaring uit te wisselen.
Op dinsdag 17 januari hebben we met hen een dialoog. We delen ervaring over autonomie, zelfvoorzienendheid op gebied van energie en zeggenschap in de agroecologische landbouw, en luisteren naar hun verhalen over hoe het is om als gemarginaliseerde groep via kraken uiteindelijk legaal terrein te winnen in de landbouw Brazilië.
De dialoog zal in het (Portugees en in het) Engels zijn. Wil je graag meedoen en voel je je niet comfortabel in het Engels? Laat het ons weten dan zoeken we naar een oplossing. Hieronder volgt een uitgebreidere uitnodiging in het Engels.
INVITATION:
Solidarity and peasant struggle: From Brazil to the Netherlands
A conversation with farmers of MST, the landless workers movement of Brazil
17 januari 2022 13:30 to 17:00
At Veld and Beek farm, Fonteinallee 33 Doorwerth
Please register through info@toekomstboeren.nl so we can send you details on the programme. Contribution: solidarity voluntary contribution
Are you familiar with the Brazilian movement Movimento Sem Terra (MST)? It originates from a group of people that reclaimed land through the process of organizing cooperatives. The movement has since grown into a relevant political and productive actor in Brazil. In the past 40 years, its struggles have expanded from occupying previously unproductive land to mobilising for a wide range of social issues.
For the MST, continuous exchange of experiences and building international solidarity are critical strategies to collectively respond to old and new challenges.
Early 2023, a delegation of dairy farmers from MST cooperatives will be touring Europe to exchange experiences with other farmers. We will have a dialogue with them on Tuesday 17 January at Veld and Beek dairy farm in Doorwerth, near Wageningen.
Toekomstboeren and the Agroecologie Netwerk represent the local voice of the international Nyéléni dialogues for agroeoclogy and food souvereignity. This dialogue will form part of that international process. We welcome all peasants and others who support the agroecology principles to join this dialogue on January 17.
What will we talk about? The delegation will share stories about how they eventually gained legal ground as a marginalized group. We will hear more about their perspectives for the future in the new political landscape of Brazil. And we will share experiences about struggles in both our countries for autonomy, energy self-sufficiency and control over our food systems through agroecology.
From 2014 onwards, MST took the production of healthy food through agroecology as a flagship of their struggles. Member cooperatives that did not have a strategy for organic production or agroecology began to discuss the challenges they faced in making the transition. Some cooperatives are also seeking experience in energy production from renewable sources.
Generational succession in the dairy sector is another area of interest because the movement is facing a lack of young people willing to continue with farming in cooperatives. The delegation would like to understand how cooperatives in Europe address this issue. Finally, they would like to discuss challenges related to certification, logistics and markets for organic and agroecological production.
Who are coming?
The delegation of MST who will visit the Netherlands January 2023 consists of five peple. The names of the cooperatives and sectors of the MST present in the delegation are:
• Cooperoeste – Cooperativa Regional de Comercialização do Extremo Oeste, with approximately 1600 members, was inaugurated in the year 1996 in the state of Santa Catarina, and is responsible for processing more than 600 thousand liters of milk per day, in addition to processing various derivatives of milk. There are three people from the unit.
• Copran – Cooperativa de Comercialização e Reforma Agraria União Camponesa, launched in 2004, a cooperative and industry that works with more than 1200 members in the northern region of the state of Paraná.
• SPCMA (Production, Cooperation and Environment Sector), is the sector of the political organization of the MST, responsible for the guidelines for the development of the production of the agrarian reform areas.
Who are the MST? The Landless Workers’ Movement or MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) is a social movement in Brazil, generally regarded as one of the largest in Latin America with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 million across 23 of Brazil’s 26 states. MST defines its goals as access to the land for poor workers through land reform in Brazil and activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as unequal income distribution, racism, sexism, and media monopolies. MST strives to achieve a self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor.