International Year of Family Farming

2014 has been proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Family Farming, to highlight the contribution that family farming worldwide makes to food security, biodiversity, sustainability, and the preservation of traditional culture and the environment.  The goals of the organizers of the IYFF and other organizations like the Via Campesina and the World Farmer’s Organization is also to organize and work for the protection of family farms, and for the inputs needed to promote cooperative, ecologically healthy rural communities.  The year provides an opportunity to create greater support for awareness-raising and initiatives by popular organizations that are already addressing issues such as the impact of climate change on small producers, gender equality in rural settings, access to markets, defense of heirloom plant and animal varieties, promotion of non-usurious credit sources and increased access to crop insurance, land and water reform, protection of seasonal laborers, and the need for fair trade instead of so-called “free trade.”

     Small farmers feed billions, help to preserve traditional diets, and are the natural locus for environmentally sustainable development.  Yet family farms and rural communities are under attack worldwide, as more and more agricultural land is devoured by urban expansion; corporate farming attempts to shut small farmers out of markets; governments invest in urban development and neglect rural communities; and water privatization, GMO seeds, and international trade and financial policies make necessary inputs and resources unattainable to more and more farmers.  Family farming must be seen as the centerpiece of a healthy economy, and the empowerment of family farmers an essential tool in fighting unemployment, hunger, malnutrition, and environmental degradation worldwide.

To the memory of farmer Lee Kyung Hae, who gave his life for the cause of small farmers in the struggle against the WTO and the fight against neo-liberal economic policies that kill farmers and destroy rural and small fishing communities.