Loretto Earth Network News SISTERS OF EARTH Autumn 2012
Vol. 20, No. 4
Food Sovereignty, Rural Women, and the Power of the Kitchen By Maxine Pohlman SSND As an activist and Mennonite, Nettie was moved years ago to cofound a way to resist globalization. Via Campesina is a movement of peasant and small scale farmers in 120 countries with over 200 million members committed to protecting cultures, land, and a way of being. The fact that there is huge disrespect for those who have lived and farmed long in one place with local agricultural knowledge can be observed in the derogatory way many people use the word “peasant.” Nettie proudly refers to herself as a peasant, one who is of the land.
“I am a Mennonite, agrarian feminist, parent, eater, gardener in a hostile environment, cook, and activist.” With these words, Nettie Wiebe introduced herself to the 2012 Sisters of Earth Conference on July 13, and with these words, she had my whole-hearted attention! Speaking with integrity as a farmer, Nettie revealed the world from the perspective of food and what happens to it. “It’s all about food because everyone eats. Food connects us. It is also a wonderful, powerful, political thing. It is our sustenance, our livelihood.” I have long shared the belief that food is key to the devastation, as well as, the healing of our rare and precious planet. As a member of the Community Supported Garden at La Vista in Godfrey, Illinois, for eight years, I have appreciated being connected to a local, alternative food system. Nettie’s words reinforced that commitment. I believe this was also true for so many of the Sisters of Earth who are deeply committed to the local food movement. Nettie is also a professor of environmental ethics at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatchewan. As an introductory assignment in one of her courses, Nettie directs students to choose a favorite food and learn everything they can about it, such as where it comes from and how far it has travelled to their table. She sees in some students’ reactions that they think this assignment is
Nettie Wiebe simplistic. With a smirk, one student said, “I’m going to do chocolate chip cookies.” Nettie encouraged him. After one week the student returned to her, confessing that he couldn’t possibly do the whole cookie. He asked if he could just do a chocolate chip! Quickly students are led into the complexity of our food system which is “dis-integrating” – separating ingredients, shipping them miles to be processed, only to return to their source to be put back together again. As they do their research, students also discover the fact of “proprietary knowledge,” learning that they cannot find out much about grocery store food, since corporations protect information about their ingredients. The lesson learned is that we are truly part of a major, globalized food system that we know very little about. This is not good news.
Since 1996 Nettie has pushed against globalized food trade and promoted local food production and protection. “It is a political conversation. The new paradigm is food sovereignty which protects local food production by those who have done this for thousands of years.” She reminded us that this paradigm is about people’s food sovereignty, not about corporate food sovereignty. It is about treating food and people and land with love and respect to achieve security. You can visit viacampesina. org to learn more about food sovereignty. Being in the presence of Nettie Wiebe is a powerful reminder of the place of women in re-imaging the human relationship to food. Nettie believes that intuitively women have a special relationship to food and the food web that makes us effective Continued on page 2