Demand change

Industrial pig farming has become a global issue. Small-scale farmers, often saddled with the debt of start-up costs, have little hope of competing directly with agribusiness giants. Meanwhile, giant corporations receive heavy subsidies from both the public and private sectors and continue to expand their operations throughout the world.

The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is a great place to start. While it has historically benefited transnational corporations, the AoA can and should more closely reflect the interests of small-scale farmers.

Campaigns to Support

Slow Food International

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. Each of Slow Food’s 100,000 members around the world are part of a convivium – a local chapter – that brings the Slow Food philosophy to life through the events and activities they organize in their communities

1. Use the online map to find your slow food local chapter. GO

La Via Campesina

La Via Campesina provides useful suggestions for the welfare of farmers around the world:

1. Support for peasant, family farm-based production that is in harmony with local culture and traditions.
2. Promote people’s food sovereignty — the RIGHT of peoples, countries, and state unions to define their agricultural and food policy according to the needs of local communities, giving priority to production for local consumption.
3. Decentralize food production and supply chains.

Find out more information on their latest campaigns. GO

International Forum on Globalization

IFG’s 10 Key WTO Reforms: In its report, The Rise and Predictable Fall of Globalized Industrial Agriculture, the International Forum on Globalization recommends a number of steps to be taken by the World Trade Organization in order to positively influence agriculture, including pig farming:

1. Allow Quantitative Restrictions (QRs).
2. Allow Selected Tariffs and Quotas.
3. Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) Exemptions.
4. Eliminate Minimum Access Requirements.
5. Allow Export Bans.
6. Reform the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and National Treatment (NT) Principles.
7. Reform the Agreement on Trade Related International Property Rights (TRIPs).
8. Reform the Trade Related Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) and the
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).
9. Allow Supply Management Boards/Price Support Systems.
10. Eliminate Direct Export Subsidies and Dumping.
(Download pdf for complete explanation of reforms)

Find out more about current campaign programs at the IFG. GO

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

The IATP provides general recommendations for agricultural trade policy reform on a global scale:

1. Design and enforce stronger and fairer multilateral trade rules.
2. Ensure the rights of sovereign states and indigenous peoples to manage their economies according to their own development strategies.
3. Prohibit dumping and ensure fair commodity prices at the national and international levels.

Find out more information on their current projects. GO

Our World Is Not For Sale

Our World Is Not for Sale has recommendations for policy change within the WTO:

1. Oppose the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
2. Stop corporate patenting of life forms under the WTO’s Trade-Related Intellectual Properties (TRIPs) agreement.
3. Stop further investment liberalization programs.
4. Prioritize social rights and the environment.

Find out the latest information on food and agriculture. GO