Spain

We, the people present in this IV Forum for a Living Rural Environment, representatives of our own experience and daily action, of our local and global fights, of our hopes and ideals, joining our different sensitivities towards building another living rural environment, with a future, hereby state: we are peasants, young men and women, women laborers, social activists, members of non-governmental organizations, consumers, environmentalists, diversity is our strength. We represent a rural environment struggling to live decently in spite of neo-liberal and destructive policies which have been threatening us for decades. We are convinced that the fight for the peoples' food sovereignty is a global struggle involving all of us, both in the North and in the South. This is a struggle for a food and agricultural model in favor of the society, here and there, which is to be built from the local and daily life.

As a result of our common work of these two days, we wish to state the challenges and approaches for a common and continuous struggle from this space which is an alliance of significant and transforming small experiences. The conclusions of our work constitute a political action program specified as follows:

1.         We demand the right to produce food. For it, it is necessary to develop ANOTHER COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY based on a family farming model, both socially and environmentally sustainable. It must favor remunerative prices for farmers and be supportive instead of destructive of the rights of men and women farmers of the South. It must be a farming policy driven towards local and regional markets. For such purpose, it is necessary to keep spreading and discussing the Agricultural Policy model we defend, together with all social groups, both rural and urban, and developing alliances with the rest of Europe. We will join the Campaign that the CPE, together with other farming organizations around the world, will launch on 17 April this year.

2.         In order to guarantee a sustainable agriculture and livestock action in the rural environment the demand of REMUNERATIVE PRICES FOR THE AGRICULTURAL WORK is necessary. Farmers should be able to make their living from their work. For it, a production control which ends the productivist model and stops surplus is necessary. It is not possible to advance towards a remunerative price if there is no management of the demand and the supply of agricultural products. We demand again a secured price for all Europe to be incidentally compensated for production coming from regions unfavourable either in their agriclimate or socially. Production control is possible only by the combination of different actions which range from the establishment of maximum amounts of production, top of available land, distribution of production rights under equitable and social criteria, non marketing of these rights and encouragement of local market. We demand an information campaign about the impact of marketing and distribution companies mainly aimed at citizens.

3.         THE AGRI-ECOLOGICAL PRODUCTION MODEL AND THE NEED FOR RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION are basic for the development of food sovereignty. This model develops from the cooperation of experiences based on a direct relationship between farmers and consumers collectively organized and related from the acknowledgment and mutual respect as well as transparency. It is essential to find forms of cooperation with the collectives promoting education and life value transfer. The development of formal and non formal education environments, mainly within rural and urban collectives is necessary. We belief that the production of educational materials, new learning methods, and exchange areas to reach the above purposes are necessary.

4.         FOOD IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT which must be respected, protected and directly and indirectly guaranteed by governments in the face of violations by other international organizations or groups, mainly in the face of actions by large food multinationals which monopolize the world market. This right creates national and international duties to be performed by governments. At this moment, various organizations of the Rural Platform are specifically working on this issue through an awareness raising campaign about the contents of the law. We consider necessary to take a step forward in action and awareness by means of an emergency network to denounce specific cases of violation of the human right to food. FIAN Coordination in Spain may take on this concrete challenge by encouraging the spreading of cases known by the remaining groups and organizations. We believe that the impact of agricultural trade liberalization agreements is particularly significant in the right to food of the most impoverished countries. We consider that food cannot be considered a mere commodity and therefore we demand that agriculture be left out of the WTO.

5.         It is necessary to re-think RURAL DEVELOPMENT in order to strengthen its concept in view of the public policies encouraged for the sake of this purpose. We consider it is necessary to get over political corsets which point some initiatives of the European Union as the only valid and checked ones. If we want a living rural environment, it is necessary to develop and implement policies in search of a harmonic rural development focused on people, which enables a decent life by addressing the needs and aspiration to improve the quality of life We want rural development in response to the approach of rural inhabitants, a work dignifying development, particularly the work of agricultural and livestock farmers, as well as fishermen, but also in recognition of those jobs which have been socially and economically devaluated. A rural development recognizing the role of women and their capacity to lead political and economic change processes. A rural development which strengthens the participation, decision and autonomy abilities of rural people.

6.         Another type of relationships is necessary, not instrumental but of co-existence and cooperation between THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE CITY. To generate such relations of constructive dialog, it is necessary that the voice of men and women in the rural areas is heard and taken into consideration: No better way to do it than communicating and spreading thousands of positive experiences evolving at the present time which put forward new forms of production, liaison and new alternatives. Moreover, it is necessary that the people in rural areas have a welcome spirit so those from urban areas can regard the countryside as a place to implement initiatives, with respect towards all stated values. We are aware that a large number of people and groups with initiatives and projects face lots of practical difficulties at the time of putting them into practice. We therefore propose the consolidation of an existing network of relevant experiences, the preparation of a guide for the implementation of productive agro-ecological projects to include the information of alternative financing and marketing or how to get access to the adequate means. To study the possibility of the creation of a Bank of Lands to develop new projects and to develop an unambiguous strategy of specific resistance for spaces in the peripheries of cities, through the recovery of productive land.

7.         The fundamental crisis of the rural area is the one derived from DEPOPULATION. It is necessary TO STRUGGLE AGAINST SUCH DEPOPULATION, and against the idleness and lack of initiative revealed by regional, national and community authorities. The future of the rural world is to be won or lost in this game. We believe that in many towns, the alternative is the installation of new settlers. For this process to advance properly, people and families sensitive to the rural settings must have the possibility of partnership and counseling, so they are able to take part in meetings and forums where they, together with country people, can talk about the hardships, aspirations and expectations of both sides. It is necessary to share resettlement experiences, which allow the materialization of economic and political proposals, to make public authorities approach the question without waiving our actual struggle.

8.         We are the witnesses of an unprecedented process of commoditization of WATER AND LAND resources. The access to these means of production is vital to the development of significant experiences of population and production recovery in the rural areas. Land and Water must be community assets, implying that their universal access is guaranteed. It is necessary to move forward and deal with the above concepts in depth if we wish to approach the existing model unequivocally. We should revalue our community assets, our experiences of community ownership, management or usage, which still exist in many rural areas of our country. It is necessary to promote neighborhood partnerships in these municipalities with ecologist movements for a joint struggle against the misappropriation process witnessed in these last years by the people in rural areas. Also against government confiscation of community property for reclassification, false rural developments which hide real estate mega-projects, large water infrastructures which help the financing of unsustainable farming models or tourist projects in coastal areas. Against all these, the generation of experiences with banks of lands, which favor different uses and enable young farmers to join in, is needed. Also the dissemination of autonomous, decentralized and sustainable models of water management, where the democratization of its management and use becomes a value, facilitating people awareness of the rural world in terms of resources. We call the Rural Platform to become a meeting point, facilitating and strengthening this exchange of experiences and projects.

9.         We notice a process of growing uncertainty of LABOR RELATIONS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE. We are aware that while the agricultural model follows the pattern of maximum productivity, growing industrialization and capitalization of farming, TEMPORARY AND SEASONAL LABOR shall be the structure of paid work in the countryside. For labor relations in the countryside to be changed, it is necessary to advance towards another agricultural model, a familial one, an ecologically and socially sustainable model, which pays for the work of all men and women. In the face of the officious speech of the authorities, we consider that agricultural temporary work is not an alternative of decent life for anybody. We consider that encouraging hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to such a solution, as the best way of integration in our society, is inhumane and socially irresponsible. Whereas the agricultural model change is brought about, efforts to dignify existing working conditions are needed, with an improvement of labor laws and its enforcement, despite the perception that it is no definitive solution. In this context and since those who participated in the workshop are familiar with the reality described, we think that temporary men and women workers should get organized, socially and in their unions, to claim their rights. Present reality makes us aware that social organizations can be of help in this organizational process, without replacing the voice of those actually affected. We encourage a new space for dialog, within the Rural Platform, of the trade unions, agricultural organizations and social entities involved.

10.       We have advanced in the proposal of SHORT MARKET CIRCUITS where production, distribution and consumption are functions placed at the same social and economic level, and where the conditions of the economic process are defined by the participation and decision making capacity of all actors -men and women. The relation is not defined by marketing, but by the distribution of production which ensures that the needs of all those involved in the process are covered. We believe a first commitment towards local and home-grown commerce is necessary, so that we shorten the market cycles in the first outbreak of the idea. Afterwards and once such conditions have been created, it should be possible to: advance towards further local experiences of dialog between production and consumption, with the strengthening of local alliances analog to the rural platform; encourage small local markets; coordinate local experiences; and promote distribution networks at different scales. We are aware that the institutional legal framework hinders the simplest issues of the local market to the most complex ones and the implementation of this model. Pressure must be applied at different spheres of action, municipalities, autonomous communities or ministries to open small spaces where initiatives can be placed and developed.

11.       The prevailing agricultural model needs biotechnology for it to be developed. TRANSGENIC CROPS are at present a threat for the development of a different model. The work of the Rural Platform has applied political pressure and developed social campaigns against transgenics which have increased over the past years in view of the total disdain showed by the previous government towards the sensitivity of farmers, consumers and social organizations. Over the next months, current legislation should be made known for it to be transparently and properly enforced in Spain. Cases of transgenic contamination and diverse resistance developed by crops should be reported so that the relevant proceedings may be carried out and the need for a prohibition is made evident. Training and information among farmers is essential with regards to these crops and it is necessary to know where commercial and experimental crop fields are placed in Spain. Direct action is still necessary in this topic as a form of public claim. We propose to continue with the ongoing experience of creating transgenic-free zones at local and autonomous level.

12.       Working at Rural Platform we wish to acknowledge once again the essential role of the rural population, who has allowed the conservation of a large amount of knowledge, the true foundations of local cultures. We regard this array of culture to be our common wealth, and it is our duty to value and keep it in order to derive knowledge from it. The aim is the recovery, systematization, value and transmission of this collection of peasant knowledge and culture. We maintain our determination to establish a Rural University which validates such culture, which recognizes this knowledge simply being disregarded at present. The project is on its way and 22 local groups have joined it. For its advancement, we strengthen inland associations and we favor the constitution of a state association and alliances with similar experiences in the rest of Europe. Over the next months, we shall be committed to the implementation of inter-territorial cooperation.

13.       The genetic legacy made up by seeds and the cultural diversity linked to local varieties continue to suffer significant losses, by oblivion and favored by large companies devoted to the industrial production of seeds. Knowledge associated to our senior farmers is gradually being lost. Patent laws damage the farmer’s right to produce and exchange varieties; the germoplasm banks which ought to keep these varieties are totally neglected. In view of this, we, in Rural Platform, favor the development of a SEED NETWORK to be devoted to the maintenance, conservation and reproduction of the existing biodiversity. At this moment, we feel the need to strengthen this link and consolidate the network as an instrument of pressure. For this process to be consolidated, we think it is initially necessary to centralize information of different local projects and groups, to be exchanged later. We should establish a strategy of political struggle, to confront the legal and institutional fabric which prevents the reproduction, exchange, multiplication of local varieties as well as its registration. The struggle against intellectual property rights preventing the access to plant genetic resources, and a joint work with men and women farmers, specially those in more isolated areas where wild native varieties are still kept. We believe that the establishment of partnerships with researchers in this field is essential.

With no further matters and this being our conviction, we close the IV Forum for a Living Rural Environment. At El Escorial, on 21 March, 2004.

FOR THE GLOBALIZATION OF OUR STRUGGLE!! FOR THE GLOBALIZATION OF OUR HOPE!!