The film, Imagining Research for Food Sovereignty, highlights key moments in the process and outcomes of the St. Ulrich Workshop on Democratising Agricultural Research for Food Sovereignty and Peasant Agrarian Cultures. Grounded in empowering forms of Citizens’ Science and Participatory Action Research, the St Ulrich workshop is part of the Democratising Food and Agricultural Research initiative, led and facilitated by Dr. Michel Pimbert who is the Executive Director for the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR).
The Democratising Food and Agricultural Research initiative focuses on transformations needed for the democratic governance of food systems and more specifically on the potential role citizens can play in rethinking food and agricultural research for the public good. Since 2007, this initiative has unfolded in the Andean Plateau (Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru), South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), West Africa (Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, Senegal), and West Asia (Iran, Jordan) (see: Excluded Voices).
In September 2013, the partners of this initiative organised an international workshop to share lessons and reflections from Africa, Asia and Latin America with a wider community of European farmers, policy makers, and representatives of the donor community. Known as the St. Ulrich Workshop on Democratising Agricultural Research for Food Sovereignty and Peasant Agrarian Cultures, this international workshop brought together 95 participants from a total of 17 countries. Over 55% of workshop participants were farmers and the other participants were activists, progressive scholars and representatives of local government, donor organisations (SDC), as well as international organizations such as the United Nations FAO and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). About half the participants were women.
The St Ulrich workshop was preceded by 4 days of farmer exchanges for mutual learning on farms and alternative food networks run by German farmers and activists in SW-Germany, on 18th to 21st September 2013. Participants from India, Nepal, Iran, Benin, Mali, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were able to visit and interact with the Black Forest Farmer Forum, the Lake Constance Rural Movement, Farmer Markets and an alternative farm property and farming model near Freiburg.
The film –Imagining Research for Food Sovereignty – highlights the outcomes of the farmer exchanges and the St Ulrich workshop deliberations.
To obtain copies of this multilingual DVD (English-French-Spanish-German) please contact CAWRoffice@coventry.ac.uk
The English version of this video film can be downloaded for free from the Excluded Voices website.
Click here to head to our Flickr page for more photos from the St Ulrich workshop.
Imagining Research for Food Sovereignty – DVD cover sleeve
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