Indigenous Food Systems Network

Aldo Leopold’s land ethic is often compared to the ethics of many North AmericanIndigenous communities, like Tribes and First Nations. At the heart of Leopold’s land ethic arethe ideas that humans should consider themselves as “plain citizens” of the biotic community and that “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the bioticcommunity.”
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Peruvian indigenous farmers have been angered by a government research
agency that has claimed it owns intellectual property (IP) rights over
more than fifty traditional varieties of potatoes bred in the Peruvian Andes.
The potatoes were bred not by government researchers but by indigenous farmers, who consider the claims to be an affront to their culture,knowledge and resources. In letters to the government, meetings, and a protest in the city of Cusco, the
farmers have insisted that the claims be dropped entirely.

Canada’s state and corporate wealth is largely based on subsidies gained from the theft of Indigenous lands and resources. Conquest in Canada was designed to ensure forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their territories, the destruction of autonomy and self-determination in Indigenous self-governance and the assimilation of Indigenous peoples’ cultures and traditions.

The concept of food sovereignty was developed by Via Campesina and brought to the public debate during the World Food Summit in 1996 and represents an alternative to neoliberal policies. Since then, that concept has become a major issue of the international agricultural debate, even within the United Nations bodies. It was the main theme of the NGO forum held in parallel to the FAO World Food Summit of June 2002.