Cymraeg For COP26, the Landworkers’ Alliance have been supporting and coordinating with delegates from other La Via Campesina member organisations; including from Spain, France, Canada, Puerto Rico and Italy. In this blog post, Canada’s National Farmers Union explain why they have made the decision to attend the COP26 climate negotiations in person, despite the obstacles, complications and uncertainties surrounding this year’s event.
The NFU is a founding member and active participant in La Via Campesina (LVC), and the only direct membership farm organization in Canada that focuses on food sovereignty and agroecology.
For more than fifty years, the NFU has not wavered in its vision for farmers, eaters, and the Earth. This is demonstrated in our efforts to promote economic, environmental, Indigenous and social justice both in Canada and abroad.
The NFU is a truly grassroots organization: all policy is created democratically by farmer members. Our members range from multigenerational grain growers, to first-generation small-scale vegetable and CSA farmers, to Indigenous farmers and seed keepers. Our goal is to work together to achieve agricultural policies that will ensure dignity and security of income for farmers while enhancing the land for future generations.
The NFU is also deeply committed to justice for Indigenous nations. As people farming on stolen Indigneous land, we have a social and legal responsibility to uphold the original agreements settlers made with sovereign Indigenous nations. We also recognize that globally, some 80 percent of biodiversity is currently under the protection of Indigenous peoples. To slow-down the climate crisis, we have to work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples for our mutual interest in protecting the land, water and climate for future generations.
Composed of farmers of all types from across Canada, the seven NFU members attending COP26 will shine a spotlight on the reality that farmers are among those most directly impacted by the climate crisis. Beyond symbolic inclusion in policy solutions, our members will share their experiences and advocate for greater government support for agroecological practices that we know, from experience, are crucial to climate adaptation and mitigation.
“Attending COP to build meaningful connections and relationships with other like-minded organizations and people is an important component of advocating for meaningful, actionable solutions to the climate crisis.”
While the decision to attend COP26 in person was not taken without considerable discussion about issues of global inequality and injustice as well as a real concern for our health, we felt that it was important to build solidarity with farmers and allies from around the world, and stress the importance of multilateralism in UN spaces. We also felt that it is important to share our stories of what’s happening on the land — droughts, wildfires, flooding, and more — and to disseminate what we learned upon our return home. Attending COP to build meaningful connections and relationships with other like-minded organizations and people is an important component of advocating for meaningful, actionable solutions to the climate crisis. We know that those relationships are best built, and sometimes only made possible, through in-person and face-to-face interactions.
We hope to act in the spirit of solidarity and to add to the chorus of organizations and peoples from around the world who are fighting for food sovereignty as a central solution to the climate crisis. As the NFU we recognize the importance of these intersectoral and intersectional relationships. We know that they are critical in building diverse coalitions that can hold the Canadian government accountable to its Climate commitments and help to educate farmers and eaters back home of the importance of multilateral work.
It’s clear that when it comes to farming and the climate crisis many would prefer a status quo approach, one focused entirely on reactive measures, or even more erroneously, one that says farmers should be exempt from any responsibility for the impact of their stewardship of the land and global climate. We believe that in order to limit the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, all peoples must come together across historic divisions and differences to learn from one another and build mutually agreed upon just solutions that will have a lasting impact on emissions reductions and on mitigating the damage we are already seeing across the world, now and for future generations
“We will challenge the corporate agenda and false capitalist solutions that prioritize markets over life. We will work to give visibility to agroecological solutions and the deeply rooted food system transformations we need.”
NFU members will be participating in the formal events of the conference as observers and also as speakers at the People’s Summit. We plan to use our platforms and interactions with the media to ensure the Canadian public knows what their government is up to on matters of critical, global and historical importance. We will challenge the corporate agenda and false capitalist solutions that prioritize markets over life. We will work to give visibility to agroecological solutions and the deeply rooted food system transformations we need.
We are ready to bring our voices to COP26 and strengthen the relationships among movements that will help us realize food sovereignty and climate justice. We will continue to put pressure on the Canadian government to honor and exceed its commitments to the climate, the rest of humanity and the earth on which farmers and all life depend.
Meet the NFU Canada delegates attending COP26:
Jessie MacInnis is a small-scale, first generation agroecological farmer and scholar-activist based in unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaq territory (aka Nova Scotia), Canada.
Jessie MacInnis is a small-scale, first generation agroecological farmer and scholar-activist based in unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaq territory (aka Nova Scotia), Canada. Jessie is currently the Youth Vice-President and Chair of the International Programs Committee of the National Farmers Union of Canada, but she has been extensively involved with La Via Campesina regionally and internationally for a number of years; working to promote and strategize towards the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), organizing with the Youth Articulation, and participating in the Committee for World Food Security’s Civil Society Mechanism youth working group.
Stuart Oke has spent the past decade as an organic farmer, organizer, and advocate, and is the owner/operator of Rooted Oak farm a CSA and Market garden located in Eastern, Ontario Canada. He is the current Youth President for the National Farmers Union (NFU) as well as the Vice-President of Canadian Organic Growers (COG), an agricultural charity focused on supporting and advocating for organic farmers in Canada
Tiffany Travers is a Secwépemc farmer, land and seed steward, language learner, and food sovereignty advocate, driven by her passion for feeding people and firm belief in the right to healthy, culturally-appropriate foods for all, drives her work. Tiffany has served as a volunteer Advisory Council member with the Community Seed Network, and currently sits as a Member at Large on the Board of Directors for SeedChange, as well on the Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for Farmers for Climate Solutions and is a Council member (Mountain Forests Biome) for Indigenous Climate Action’s Indigenous-led decolonizing climate policy Advisory Council.
Shannon Wright works as a virtual assistant from home on their farm near Delisle, Saskatchewan, in western Canada. Shannon completed her B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry followed by a M.Sc. degree in Neuropsychiatry Research. She stayed home to raise their 3 kids and started a home-based business doing website design for a wide variety of clients. She is also the secretary/treasurer for the Saskatchewan Seniors Association. In her spare time, Shannon enjoys gardening, cooking/baking, and preserving the bounty of harvest. Shannon takes pride in providing assistance, encouragement and support to her family members in all of their endeavors.
Glenn Wright and his family grow grains, oilseeds, and pulse crops on their farm near Delisle, Saskatchewan, in western Canada. He is a passionate advocate for sustainability, equality, and strengthening our democracy, and his farming practices focus on low-input approaches in order to reduce reliance on corporate inputs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and manage climate-related and other risks by minimizing input costs.
Anastasia Fyk is a 4th generation farmer, artist, translator, and pilot based in Treaty 2 Territory in Garland, MB, Canada. Her practice focuses on cycles, especially agricultural, to address the disconnection between modern society and its roots. Her approach to farming is based on soil health, regional systems, and anti-colonialism; restorative farming practices that are inherently linked to nutritious food and food sovereignty.
Madeline Marmor is a first generation, landless farmer and treaty-person born in downtown Toronto, Canada. A descendant of vegetable grocers and kosher butchers, Madeline grows and cultivates flowers, vegetables, livestock and legumes and became a member of the National Farmers Union (NFU) in the Spring of 2019. Since then she has served as Region 3 Youth Advisor, International Program’s Committee Co-Chair and Regional 3 National Board Member.
