Announcing the 2020 Food Sovereignty Prize awardees: the Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA) of Maine and the All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (ANPFa).
Photo from Somali Bantu Community Association Facebook page
The Somali Bantu Community Association’s Liberation Farms have served as a lifeline of food and financial security to more than 200 refugee farmers whose communities are disproportionately hit by both COVID and hunger, while also serving the broader community, including provision of fresh, healthy foods to local schools.
With over two million members, the All Nepal Peasants’ Federation is working to dismantle casteism, as well as sexism and ageism, with special branches dedicated to the empowerment of Dalits (“untouchables” in the caste system), women, and youth. ANFPa has also played an active role in Nepal’s democratization process, achieving the inclusion of food sovereignty in the country’s new constitution. Nepal is now one of several countries in the world to have adopted food sovereignty into law.
Organized by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded each year as a counterweight to the “World Food Prize” which critics decry for its singular focus on top-down, industrial approaches.
Learn more about the 2020 Food Sovereignty Prize awardees here.
Featured image: All Nepal Peasants’ Federation courtesy of US Food Sovereignty Alliance
