Members of Global Justice Cleveland had a stall at the Saltburn Farmers Market in June. Our campaign this time focused on the need for a UN Declaration of Rights for small farmers around the world. In many countries small farmers are losing their access to land and water and are therefore unable to continue farming. This is worrying as it is estimated that 70% of the world’s
population are fed by peasant farmers.
In most cases these farmers are being displaced by their own governments who choose to prioritise the growing of cash crops over the feeding of their own people. We had action cards that could be signed and sent to the Foreign Secretary who, at this time, is still Boris Johnson. He is responsible for the UK decision at the UN. In the last round of negotiations our representative spoke against the declaration.
Unfortunately it was a very wet day which always affects how many people attend the market and how prepared they are to take time to talk to us. A group of us were there for two hours and in that time we gave out 140 action cards and had a conversation with everyone who took a card. 37 of those cards were signed on the day and have been sent to GJN National. The other hundred cards were taken home.
In addition to handing out cards we had a game involving picking a card, each card had a short case study describing how a particular country’s farmers had been adversely affected by the increasing expansion of cash crops. We also had one card representing a share holder in a multi-national company. People were rewarded with either a small or large biscuit as appropriate. The card game is particularly popular with children.
We were pleased with the number of people we were able to speak to about this campaign.
