A Brazilian Activist in Brooklyn

posted by brooklynfoodconference, on April 29, 2009

Of all the speakers coming to the Brooklyn Food Conference on Saturday, Debora Nunes Lino da Silva is traveling the furthest. She’s flying in from northeast Brazil, from a small, poor state called Alagoas where sugar cane is grown. That sugar cane is planted, tended and harvested by peasants on large plantations. Da Silva is a leader of the MST, the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement.

Her Struggle Means a Lot
It’s not about the miles that da Silva is traveling. It’s what she brings us.  Where she comes from people are risking their lives to grow the food they need. Brazil is big lush country with 865 million arable acres, but 66% of those arable acres is owned by just 3% of the population.

A school in an MFT encampment. This encampment is named for Chico Mendes, who died trying to save the rainforests. Photo by Grassroots International.

“In few countries is there such a glaring inequality in private land ownership as there is in Brazil,” says Ana Maria Galano in Land-Hungry in Brazil. “At the bottom of the ladder, five million families do not have even the smallest plot to cultivate.”  That’s a lot of families in desperate circumstances.  And they’re finding that when they come together, they can be a meaningful force not only to each other but to the powers that be.  Writes Galano, “The occupation of vast under-used estates by Brazil’s MST might seem like a struggle from another age. In fact the movement is offering new responses to the greatest scourge of modern Brazil—social exclusion.”

The MST is the largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million members.  Nearly 350,000 families have been settled through the efforts of MST (da Silva helps mobilize families to occupy land). Another 70,000 are living in encampments awaiting title to their land. Da Silva knows these camps, since she has managed some of them.

But the problem grows more complicated. “The sugar cane is increasingly being used for the production of ethanol, which is devastating both for the environment and for human rights,” said Christina Schiavoni, co-director of World Hunger Year’s Global Movements Program, which arranged to have da Silva attend, together with partners such as Grassroots International, Friends of MST, and the Small Planet Fund. “There are very poor labor practices on these plantations,” Schiavoni explained. “Her struggle represents a lot.”

People willing to risking their lives by standing up to the system because they want something so basic as the right to the land. Perhaps da Silva brings us a gift. When those Brazilian families are strong enough to encamp on private land, how can I not do more to help right the balance here in Brooklyn—could I not do something so our poorest can feed themselves and get the nutrition (both physical and mental) that comes with that? How can I say, “Oh, what can I do? Things will never change.”  Things can change. Look at them.

Da Silva is a sociologist and has been with the MST for the last ten years. She’s focused on production, cooperation, and environment. She’s also cultivating the next generation of organizers, especially the women and youth.

NYC’s Urban Lessons
De Silva should have a lot to talk about on Saturday, but she will also be absorbing everything Brooklyn has to offer. Christina Schiavoni has seen it happen with other La Via Campesina visitors (the MST is part of the worldwide La Via Campesina network). “New York has some really fantastic models in urban agriculture,” she said, rattling off some of the techniques found on New York’s inner city farms: rainwater collection, composting toilets, how inner city farmers can grow in such small spaces and do so sustainably, and urban livestock production (Yup, you read that right. Check out the Chickens in the City workshop at 3:15 in room 462 at John Jay).

But what’s really important is that both sides see we’re not so different. “Often there’s a false divide between issues in rural communities and those in urban communities,” she said. “Rural leaders come here and see communities who have been marginalized and are struggling to hang on to their little pieces of land. They see unequal distribution of resources. And they feel a real sense of connection. Several walked away with a resolve to build stronger links with urban communities at home.”

The youth empowerment programs, which are a major focus of groups like East New York Farms, Brooklyn Rescue Mission and Added Value, are a big hit with visiting rural farmers. “There’s a huge exodus of youth from rural areas in their countries,” said Schiavoni. “Models for youth empowerment have been very interesting to international visitors.”

MFT members risk their lives when they participate in an encampment. Photo by Grassroots International.

But there’s something else. I remember on the evening of 9/11 seeing shots on TV of people in London and other countries all over the world, with candles and flowers. They were for us, for New York, and I remember how surprised and how deeply moved I was by those images. “They feel it too,” I thought, “They care.” I took strength from that. That is no small gift that we offer to the peasants in Brazil.

Debora da Silva’s Workshop Schedule

• 11:45—Food Sovereignty workshop (room 463)
• 1:30—Trade Policy workshop (room 258)

Others Who Come From Afar
Tying for second place in this Blogger’s Award for Speakers Who Travel the Farthest to Brooklyn are the Californians: featured speaker Raj Patel (author of Stuffed & Starved) and chef Jenny Huston, who teaches people who have suffered from major mental illness, homelessness or drug addiction how to be sustainable chefs.

- Paige Churchman