¿Soberanía Alimentaria?

Para el que tenga tiempo y ganas, en febrero de este año se realizará en Sélingué, Mali, el encuentro Nieleny 2007, Foro Internacional para la Soberanía Alimentaria.

Uno de los convocantes es José Bové, agricultor francés conocido por haber ingresado con un tractor en su Mac Donalds local:

VÍA CAMPESINA would like to thank the numerous artists who have agreed to support Nyéléni 2007. The diversity of their music and songs are implanted in peasant culture, which is still thriving on our planet. Their help and support has enabled us to realise this political project that is of great importance to us.

José Bové - Vía Campesina

El concepto de soberanía alimentaria no tiene una definición unívoca. De todos modos, parece combinar la "seguridad alimentaria" (que todos tengan para comer, preferentemente a través de alimentos producidos en el país) con la movida antiglobalización (que esos alimentos sean producidos localmente por pequeños agricultores, sin intervención de organismos genéticamente modificados).

Qué querés que te diga... Por más que se junten en Mali, está claro que Bové no quiere abrir el mercado europeo a los productos más eficientes de los países en desarrollo. Hay pila de ONGs detrás de esta idea, muchas de ellas seguramente con las mejores intenciones, pero el cuadro general es por lo menos confuso.

Cierro con algunos párrafos de una reciente nota del Economist que vienen a cuento:

Ethical food

Good food?

Dec 7th 2006
From The Economist print edition

(...)

Surely the case for local food, produced as close as possible to the consumer in order to minimise “food miles” and, by extension, carbon emissions, is clear? Surprisingly, it is not. A study of Britain's food system found that nearly half of food-vehicle miles (ie, miles travelled by vehicles carrying food) were driven by cars going to and from the shops. Most people live closer to a supermarket than a farmer's market, so more local food could mean more food-vehicle miles. Moving food around in big, carefully packed lorries, as supermarkets do, may in fact be the most efficient way to transport the stuff.

What's more, once the energy used in production as well as transport is taken into account, local food may turn out to be even less green. Producing lamb in New Zealand and shipping it to Britain uses less energy than producing British lamb, because farming in New Zealand is less energy-intensive. And the local-food movement's aims, of course, contradict those of the Fairtrade movement, by discouraging rich-country consumers from buying poor-country produce. But since the local-food movement looks suspiciously like old-fashioned protectionism masquerading as concern for the environment, helping poor countries is presumably not the point.

(...)