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The HUNGER GATHERING

Roma, Villaggio Globale, November 8-17, 1996

800 MILLION PEOPLE are suffering today from chronic malnutrition. 200 million of them are children. Mass starvation is mainly a Southern reality. Meanwhile, in the Northern, industrialised countries, food is plentiful but frequently chemical-ladden, transported over huge distances and grown at the expense of Southern peoples.Food insecurity is not just the fact that people have no food to eat, it is that they have no control over food pro-duction and/or distribution. Food insecurity is the harvest of the dominant industrial and economic paradigms which Northern governments and transnational corporations are enforcing both at home and abroad. Their activities result directly in social disintegration - the disruption of local communities, increasing landlessness and urbanisation of indigneous peoples and small farmers - and in environmental destruction - desertification, erosion, agricultural monoculturalism, vanishing biodiversity, chemical contamination of soil and groundwater.

The WORLD FOOD SUMMIT (Rome, November 13-17 1996)
is being organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It aims to achieve intergovernmental endorsement of a (legally non-binding) plan of action to solve the problem of hunger. From the agenda it is clear that the root causes of hunger have been ignored. Instead, the proposed solutions (liberalization of food markets, biotechnology) - the very agents of human misery and environmental destruction - are being promoted as solutions. The true solutions to food insecurity are not increased production, but localised, community and culture-oriented production, not agricultural and cultural homogenisation through global markets, but the protec-tion and promotion of agricultural and cultural diversity through local markets and local trade.

THE HUNGER GATHERING Rome, November 8-17, 1996
is where the real causes of hunger and environ-mental destruction will be identified and the true solutions actively promoted.It is a gathering of around 200 young people from North and South. Youth representatives from Southern grassroots and people's movements will be invited to Rome to ensure that those hardest hit by food security have a voice. .

List of partecipants

Calendar

Documents

The Hunger Gathering is:

• SEMINARS and WORKSHOPS
  
  • From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution
  • Biodiversity and Agricultural Policy
  • Access to Genetic Resources: Patents on Life, Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Farmer Rights
  • The Common Agricultural Policy of the EU
  • Gender and Hunger
  • Transnational corporations (TNCs)
  • Structural Adjustment, Trade Liberalisation
  • Food Aid and Food Security
  • Forestry and forests and their role in food security
  • Industrial fishing and the plunder of the seas
  • Consumers & Hunger: Links between Super-market Shelves and Starving Children
  
  
• PUBLIC PLENARIES in the evenings with leading international keynote speakers.

• An OPEN SPACE for participants to present and discuss local initiatives in all areas touching food security - organic and subsistence farming, transport, development, consumption...

• A CULTURAL PROGRAMME, POPOL VUH: literally the "Book of the People/Book of the Community" - is a book laying down the basic beliefs of the ancient Mayan People (whose legacy to the world includes the creation of a rich diversity of maize varieties). It describes the way by which humans should integrate themselves in nature as a part of a whole.With the Popol Vuh and its meaning as our symbol, we are situating art in a political context in order
  
  • to reframe predominantly economic conceptions of food security into a more holistic reality.
  • to present alternatives to the current policy of prioritising economy over social, environmental and cultural needs.
  • to show solidarity with indigenous people, small farmers who are directly affected by food insecurity.
  
  The Programme is inspired by the many cultures of Latin America and thus embodies the diversity which is necessary for life on earth. It includes theatre, dance and music performances, exhibitions of photographs and paintings. Framing the site of these activities will be mural paintings on hunger and a monumental sculpture inspired by the organic shape of maize and constructed out of natural materials.
• ACTION to comment and influence the official negotiations through demonstrations, press conferences and actions.

• STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE - discussions and planning for future common activities to combat the processes causing human misery and environmental destruction. Contact the Play Fair Europe! or A SEED offices if you would like to read or comment our discussion document aiming for a strategic position in the long term.

• BRIDGING SOLIDARITY - is a programme that will bring the youth representatives from Southern grassroots and peoples' movements to Rome and involve them in a 2-week speakers' tour around Europe. By presenting the realities of disadvantaged youth in the South, Bridging Solidarity aims to
  
  • mobilise people to take common action on poverty and social exclusion.
  • link groups in the North and South in their work against the processes which, among others, have led to hunger, social disintegration and environmental degradation in both the North and South.

Play Fair Europe! is an international network of young people active in North South issues. Our principal aim is to inform and sensibilise others about current development strategies and their social and environmental consequences and to motivate them to activity.contact:
Play Fair Europe!
Templergraben 55
52056 Aachen, Germany
tel: ++49-241-803792
fax: ++49-241-876103
e-mail: asta@rwth-aachen.de

A SEED Europe (Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Development), is the European hub of a world-wide youth network of young people active in the field of environment and development.
A SEED Europe
P.O.Box 92066
1090 AB Amsterdam, Netherlands
tel.: ++31-20-668 2236
fax: ++31-20-665 0166
e-mail: aseedeur@antenna.nl

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