IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Waar: Utrecht and Amsterdam , Netherlands
Wanneer: 27/05/2022 - 10:00 t/m 29/05/2022 - 17:00

For a weekend we invite you to join the Food Autonomy Festival (FAF#6) 2022 where you can learn practical skills, hear people’s experiences, build alternatives and share moments of laughter and joy.

What is the Food Autonomy Festival and for whom is it organized?

The festival is a place where activists, farmers, young academics, food-lovers -among many others who fight together for social and ecological justice- are brought together. It is a place for everyone who is interested in the topics we are discussing, those who know about these topics already, and those who want to learn more. Collectively we will take engagement with food beyond procurement and make it a site of resistance, solidarity and autonomy.
Amsterdam:

May 27, Lutkemeerpolder, farming day and opening celebration for Food Autonomy
May 28-29, Noordoogst (Meteorenweg 272), workshops, panel discussions, stalls & evening programme

Utrecht:

May 27, Voorkamer, dinner & storytelling about food autonomy to open the Utrecht FAF
May 28, locations tba, cycling tour to visit vegetable gardens and farms
May 29, Grounded (Fort Lunet 1), workshops, stalls, evening programe

Why is food autonomy important?

We believe food autonomy is important because it cares for the earth, for the people, and challenges structural inequalities. It also aims to guarantee and protect people’s space, ability, and right to define their own models of production, food distribution, and consumption patterns. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of locally controlled food systems to sustain people and nature in a diversity of rural and urban contexts as well as aims to regenerate a diversity of autonomous food systems based on equity, social justice, and ecological sustainability.

Why is the Food Autonomy Festival important?

Talking about the importance of food autonomy, let’s also discuss why the festival itself is important. The FAF presents and celebrates alternatives and resistance to the food and climate crisis as well as the capitalist, hierarchical systems that fail to create a socially and ecoloogically just world. At the festival, various food-autonomous initiatives are brought together to learn from each other. Together we aim to put food at the center of social, economic, political and climatic issues. The FAF is an example of how gathering for place-based causes and collective discussions on local problems becomes an occasion for all to learn about grassroots movements and local resistance, which can be carried on in different contexts and within larger international actions.

Connecting the Food Autonomy Festival to the broader context

The FAF is a place where we can connect with each other in our struggles in the fight for a sustainable and just food system.

We believe that a just food system can only be created if different levels of oppression and inequalities are fought simultaneously. Today, the food system reflects society where capitalism is the director, patriarchy the writer and colonialism the producer (among other oppressive systems). To fight for a just food system, therefore, means taking an anticapitalist, decolonial, intersectional stance, paying attention to the different oppressions that are keeping these systems running.

The FAF is connected to different struggles based on the goals that we are all fighting for. We believe that getting together to talk about Food Autonomy allows for conversations about autonomy in many ways, how to achieve this and which oppressive systems need to be destroyed on the way there. That is, food autonomy can only be achieved if the climate crisis is fought, the patriarchy is smashed, ableism deconstrudted, capitalism is destroyed, colonialism demolished… and so on. This is why we want the FAF to be a place where we can fight for agricultural justice, climate justice, food autonomy and overall systemic justice. In doing so, strive in both our perspectives and practices, to challenge racism, sexism, coloniality, and oppression in all its forms.

Connecting to previous Food Autonomy Festivals

As mentioned, this year marks the sixth edition of ASEED’s annual Food Autonomy Festival! In previous years, people gathered to explore many different topics and issues through panel discussions, workshops, and presentations. In previous years, people came together to learn and debate about a range of topics including “Regenerative Agriculture through practices“, “Dismantling Oppression in the Food Sytems” and “local Agricultural Struggles”. This year the Festival will be all about: ‘Sowing solidarity, Nurturing resistance, Harvesting autonomy’. With these themes we aim to build upon previous topics and further explore ways in which solidarity, resistance and autonomy can be achieved. In order to achieve radical change in our food systems, and more generally in all aspects of our societies, different strategies have been used to resist, to show more solidarity among each other and to fight for autonomy. Last year’s theme of “Roots and Fruits of Resistance” started a conversation in which people talked about different forms of resistance that are crucial in the fight for a more just and sustainable future. This year we want to take this conversation to the next level by not only focusing on the potential of resistance but also how we can build a future in which solidarity and autonomy is at the heart of society. Overall, the FAF’s sixth edition will continue to provide a space for people to come together and learn about (food) autonomy in all its shapes and sizes.

We look forward to see you there, let’s root and blossom together!

Keep an eye on our website and social media to find out more about the programme, locations and workshops!