Enlarging Fair project: Right for Food seminar in Malta

Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust (KKG), the only Fair Trade Organisation in Malta, is a participating partner in a two-year project co-funded by the European Commission called Enlarging Fair, which is implemented together with Fair Trade Organisations from four other New Member States (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia) under the coordination of Pangea-Niente Troppo, an Italian Fair Trade Organisation.

One of the objectives of the Enlarging Fair project is the design and implementation of a common campaign which will be launched in all the participating countries during the second part of 2009 and which has already been launched in Italy. The focus of the common campaign is the right to food and will deal mainly with the issues of food security and food sovereignty and the role of Fair Trade in helping poor producers overcome their unjust disadvantage in the world market.

In the scope of the Enlarging Fair project, KKG organised a public seminar in December 2008 on the theme of the Right for Food which was well attended by representatives of the participating International Fair Trade organisations as well as by members of local NGOs, the PL (Malta Labour Party), Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green Party and the general public. In line with the campaign theme, the guest speakers at the seminar addressed a number of issues related to food production and distribution both from a global and local perspective. Among the speakers was Ms Borbala Simonyi, a Hungarian expert in food sovereignty, who gave a theoretical overview of the complex relationship between the right for food, food security and food sovereignty from a global perspective.

In her intervention, Ms Claudia Piacenza from Pangea-Niente Troppo and one of the co-ordinators of the Enlarging Fair Project, stressed that Fair Trade has a significant role to play in the struggle against global poverty and injustice. Fair Trade has the role of educating different sectors of society and informing them about the roots and causes of hunger as well as to promote Fair Trade as a concrete alternative choice to fight global trade inequalities; as a force of change reflected in our everyday responsible lifestyle choices.

The theme of “The Right for Food” will be further developed in the 2009 Worldfest event in Malta. This is a yearly KKG event and this year it will take place on 9th May, the World Fair Trade Day.

For more information on the Right for Food seminar in Malta, please read the following detailed article: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/Right-for-Food-Malta.pdf

For further information on the right for food/food sovereignty, the upcoming Worldfest event and related activities, please visit: http://l-ikel.org/discuss.htm (partly in Maltese language)

Information provided by Angele Deguara, Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust