Press release - 5 June 2009

The international forum for leaders from the social economy

“Feeding the planet: What role can the social economy play?”

The 4th international forum for leaders from the social economy will take place in Chamonix (France) on 9-10 November 2009.

More than 950 million people around the world suffer from hunger.  In Haiti, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia and other countries, 2008 was a year marked by food riots.  The shocking images were followed by explanations, too many to form a clear picture: soaring grain prices, basic foodstuffs traded on markets, competition for land by non-food crops, and the first consequences of climate change among others.

Held at the foot of the Mont Blanc, the international forum for leaders from the social economy will focus on precise concrete solutions in response to the world food crisis.

Hunger first affects those who produce the world’s food.  The food models that dominate everywhere today are causing serious health problems in developed countries and severe malnutrition in developing countries, where land is devoted to feeding pigs, poultry and cattle consumed in wealthy countries. Paradoxically, we produce more than enough to feed the entire world population. What’s missing today is neither the resources perhaps nor the land but primarily their fair distribution and allocation.

The social economy has a key role to play in the near future if it stays true to the values that it promotes.  Cooperatives, mutuals, nonprofits and foundations are already playing an important role in many countries by mitigating inequities and helping to establish fairer practices and other ways of producing and consuming.

The 4th Mont Blanc Meetings in November 2009 will provide an opportunity to examine the world situation, present experiences and achievements and launch new joint projects aimed at better feeding the planet.  Heads of cooperatives, mutuals, nonprofits and foundations will be attending as well as representatives from social movements, labor unions, guest international organizations (UNDP, WFP, FAO, UNCTAD, ILO, UNITAR, ICA, etc.), researchers and academics.

contact: Thierry JEANTET

tel.: + 33 (0) 6 07 28 12 72 / + 33 (0)1 45 74 08 56

e-mail: thierry.jeantet@euresa.org

Who are we?

An international forum for launching projects, taking stands on issues and exchanging ideas.

The Mont Blanc Meetings are a transversal forum that brings together leaders from all parts of the social economy covering every sector and region in the world as well as experts and officials from international organizations, university researchers, and representatives from social, political and labor movements.

Featuring a precise theme for each edition (held every two years) and providing a place for discussions, exchanging ideas and developing joint projects, the Meetings aim to offer responses to major current issues and challenges through the development of concrete projects that are jointly run by companies and organizations from around the world.

Since 2004 when the 1st edition was held, concrete projects have been set up such as CoopEst, which provides finance to support the growth of social economy companies in Eastern European countries, the development of the biogas sector in the Republic of Guinea, and the International Association of Social Economy Foundations.

The Meetings are a chance to show that it is possible to do business differently by putting social and solidarity objectives at the heart of economic and entrepreneurial activities.

www.rencontres-montblanc.coop

Plan for the 4th Mont Blanc Meetings

(9-10 November 2009)

As in the 2007 edition, the Mont Blanc Meetings will be designed to enable a progression: familiarization with the issues, deeper understanding through concrete cases, general exchange of ideas and questions, development of projects, commitments.

The world food theme has multiple facets that are all inter-related. It is impossible to talk about rising grain prices without mentioning the scarcity of water that drives some countries to buy rather than produce, tensions on stock markets that have made agricultural commodities objects of speculation, and soaring oil prices that have severely affected transport. Many other examples could be mentioned, and some of them will be discovered over the course of these two days.

A series of topics have been identified that are of primary importance: access to agricultural land; protecting seeds; farming practices and their impact on soil fertility; water; the organization of markets; food models (in both developed and developing countries); the role of biofuels; fair trade; etc.

Monday, 9 November 

The morning will give participants the opportunity to hear experts on these topics in particular:

- Amartya Sen on the history of famines in the world (to be confirmed).

- Michel Griffon (Agronomist, Former Director of CIRAD) and Bruno Parmentier (Agronomist) on potential agricultural output, the Green Revolution, and the changes needed in adapting conventional models to the new demographic, climatic and environmental conditions.

- Olivier De Schutter (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food) on agricultural commodity prices.

- Riccardo Petrella (Former European Commissioner) on water resources and the impact of climate change.

- Claude Bourguignon (Agronomist, specialist in pedology) on the life of soil and the problems of land sterilization from intensive farming.

- Vandana Shiva (Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology) on the issue of seeds, the relationship between developed and developing countries, and patenting living organisms.

- T. Colin Campbell (Nutrition Scientist) on food models and their effects on health (to be confirmed).

- João Stedile (Spokesman for Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement) on access to land (to be confirmed).

In the afternoon, participants will split up into three workshops.

They will meet international players, organizers of proven projects who will explain in concrete terms the consequences they have experienced of the various problems talked about in the morning as well as the solutions that they themselves have set out to implement.

There will be six project leaders per workshop, each of whom will focus on one of the topics but their accounts will tie in with all the various chosen topics, providing an opportunity to better understand the inter-connections.

Participants will also have a chance to ask questions and will try to work out how they, as players in the social economy, can get involved in these issues and what is needed or missing as well as the leads, expertise and resources that can be drawn upon.

For example, in one workshop there could be a representative from a Japanese teikei, the direct food distribution systems that for the past forty years have been efficiently distributing basic foodstuffs and are set up around self-help networks (day-care centers, retirement homes, jobs for women, etc.) – this concerns the topic of markets.

A representative from Panchina, a Chinese NGO that is involved in promoting traditional farming methods and banning the use of pesticides – this concerns the topic of farming practices and their impact.

A representative from the Institute of Dayakology (Borneo) to speak about the control of agricultural land and local resistance – this concerns the topic of access to land and farmers’ organizations.

A representative from Navdanya, an Indian NGO that campaigns against the appropriation of seeds and GM crops – this concerns the topic of seeds.

A representative from the CoopAfrica program concerning the activities of cooperatives on that continent, etc.

Tuesday, 10 November

The morning will be devoted to a round-table discussion.

 “What role can the social economy play in the food issue?”

Major “witnesses” (UNDP, WFP, ILO, AFD, etc.) will give their views, followed by leaders from the social economy. The session will involve examining the needs in depth and looking for the best ways of adapting the possible solutions offered by the social economy to the identified needs.

In the afternoon, participants will return to their workshops.

 Participants will present the ideas that they have had to the group and the projects they think they can commit to. The project leaders from the day before will be asked to make comments and suggestions, point out potential pitfalls and propose their support. Participants will also be able to co-opt each other, find support from other social-economy players and form networks.

After the workshops are finished, everyone will come together again for the plenary session on project commitments. A key moment of the Meetings, this is the time for publicly announcing the projects participants are committing to, knowing that these projects will be monitored and scrutinized by everyone.

Please note that on November 8th there will be specific meetings about several ongoing projects since 2004 (International Association of Foundations, International Observatory on Social Economy Practices, International Association for Free Software, etc.) as well as some special events (anniversary of the INAISE network).

At the conclusion of these two days, the first Mont Blanc Meetings Prize will be awarded to a project from the previous Meetings.