European Youth took action

When we talk about “Our Food. Our Future,” we are talking first and foremost about the future for the youth. That’s why we created Youth Labs as a space for young people to exchange ideas. Over five weekends, 110 European youth from different countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Belgium and Poland) had the opportunity to discuss their ideas for a fairer food system with experts and in working groups. Issues discussed included agricultural policy, the food industry and climate change, the right to food and the concepts of food sovereignty and food security, and the rights of migrant workers.

The International Youth Lab also included a training program on organizing actions under the guidance of two experienced activists and trainers to develop action ideas to contribute to a more just and sustainable food system.

Organized By MIJARC Europe. 37 Young participants.
The activity was carried out in December 2020 3rd-6th, The theme of this event was “Youth participation in agricultural policies”, meaning the activities aimed at inspiring young people to engage into actions relating to food and agriculture.
We proposed different types of activities, among which 3 workshops (on the topics of soil health, animal health and water-grabbing, with the support of experts).

Organized by MIJARC Europe and KLJ ( Belgium MIJARC’s Member Organization). 21 Young participants.
The activity was carried out in March 2021 25th-28th. The theme of this event was “Food industry and climate change”, with also special focus on the meat and milk production and meat consumption.
We offered three activities linked to the topic:

• One session with Ange David Baïmey, an expert from GRAIN[1] about the impact of the industrial food system on climate change (deforestation, pesticides, transport, food waste…)
• One workshop on factory farms in meat and dairy production by two experts, David Sanchez from Food & Water Action[2] and Rosa Diaz from Stop Factory Farming in Spain[3].
• One workshop on Meat consumption by Tessa Avermaete, project manager at the Sustainable Food Economies Research Group (SFERE) of Leuven University.

Organized by MIJARC Europe and MRJC (MIJARC’s Member organization from France)
The activity took place on April 2021 10th-11th. It had a total of 24 participants
The activity was focus mainly on two elements, in one hand Right to food and I the other hand we continued with the program training on actions initiated in the second international Youth lab.

• Main initial session with Emily Mattheisen, an expert from FIAN about the right to food and nutrition (food security, food sovereignty, and right to adequate food and nutrition)
• One workshop on the concept of food social security by two French experts, Mathieu Dalmais and Marie Bourguine, from ISF AgriSTA
• One workshop on short food supply chains by François Guiton, from the French network MIRAMAP
• Session on planning social actions

Organized by MIJARC Europe and KLJB (MIJARC’s German Member Organization).
The activity was carried out on May 22nd-23rd. The theme of this event was “Migrant Workers’ Rights”. 15 young participants.
We offered three activities linked to the topic:

• One session with Gianluca Cesaro, an expert from PICUM[4] about Migrant workers’ rights in the agri-food sector.
• One workshop on the situation of Migrant Workers in the fields of Almería and Huelva, South of Spain. We had three experts, Johhanna Moreno, Delia McGrath and José García Cuevas from SAT/SOC (Agricultural Trade Union in Andalucia).
• One workshop on the situation of Migrant Workers in west Europe, mainly coming from eastern Europe, with a farmer (Ramona Duminicioiu) from ECORURALIS, Romanian farmer organization member of La Via Campesina.