With my video project ‘Learning from the Grassroots’, I focus on committed, grassroots networks that show that truly sustainable changes in the area of food sovereignty are almost always initiated by civil society actors – associations, networks, independent NGOs, committed individuals – whereas bureaucratic regulations and rules often lag behind, or – in their abstract centralism – even do more harm than good.
Protecting the soil and the health of humans and animals living in a specific place is the main goal of terrestrial grassroots networks. ‚Terrestrial‚ is a term coined by the philosopher Bruno Latour, who himself comes from a family of French winegrowers.
‘Terrestrial’ literally means: belonging to the territory. The terrestrial attitude, in the sense, Latour defined this term, is about making the protection of ‘territory’ from industrial exploitation (through environmental toxins, soil sealing or resource depletion) a top priority. Because it is the emotional connection with the specific place in which we live that makes us fight to keep this habitat – the air we breathe, the soil that feeds us, the water we drink, the diversity of living organisms and the specifics of local varieties – intact.
„At the end of the day, some [food and seed sovereignty] activists hold the conviction, born out of the arduous and ultimately failed efforts to secure farmers‘ rights through international negotiations and agreements, that the sole effective way to protect farmers‘ varieties is to work at the grassroots level to keep seeds in farmer’s hands, instead of relying on the courts.“
Karine E. Peschard, „Seed Activism: Patent Politics and Ligitations in the Global South“, page 102