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Argentina Issues New Label To Family Farmer’s Market



08/31/2015

The introduction of new Argentine family farmer’s market will set a new drive, which will raise awareness, strengthen economy and allow the profit to be harvested by the farmers directly.


Dailycsr.com – 13 August 2015 – Even while it continued to pour heavily in Argentina, the customers flocked around the “Bonpland Solidarity Economy Market” to purchase family farmers’ products. In order to strengthen this market segment, the government will take steps to label them with an identity.
 
 
Even during the rain the peasant organisers set up their market for selling their agricultural product that they grow through fair trade and without any “slave labour”. Araujo, one of the indigenous farmers, informs IPS:

“Our vegetables are completely natural. They are grown without toxic agrochemicals”.
 
Moreover, the market also sells cheese, honey, whole grain bread, natural juices, homemade jams, “seeds with nutritional properties”, olive oil, besides other dairy products. The Southern Common Market or Mercosur, labelling the family farmers market, began to function about four years ago, which included countries like Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Paraguay. The organisation of REAF provides a common platform for “government and family farming organisations”. According the REAF, Chile’s family farmers brand goes by the name of “Manos Campesinas” which was created in the month of June, whereby it is dedicated to provide:

“...healthy products of peasant origin, made on a small scale, which foment local development.”
 
In Alvarado’s words:
“The idea is to give small farmers a chance, and here we have people from all around the country, who wouldn’t otherwise have the possibility of selling their goods”.
 
The government created the “Produced by Family Farms”  label, in order to:
“...to enhance the visibility of, inform and raise awareness about the significant contribution that family farms make to food security and sovereignty.”
 
 
The family farming sector is the main food supplier of the Argentina, notes the ministry, whereby the project and programme director of “the ministry’s family agriculture secretariat ”, RaimundoLaugero says:
“A label identifying products grown on family farms not only makes the sector more visible but foments a dialogue between consumers and farmers who have a presence in the countryside across the entire nation, generating territorial sovereignty”.
 
 
Moreover, products grown under the label will ensure a health control mechanism through chemical free farming as oppose to industrial “monoculture farming”. Whereby he added:
“When we’re talking about a product from family agriculture, the symbolic value is that they are produced through artisanal processes and with work by the family, and one fundamental aspect is that behind the product are the faces of people who live in the countryside”.
 
Agriculture is a key factor in the South American countries’ economy. Moreover, the new label will be guarantying the supply of “agroecological products”. Alvarado remarks:

“This will especially help the public become aware of what it means to help small farmers. So they can realise that what they pay and what they consume really goes to them, and for the people who do the work to really get paid what they are due”.
 
However, there are other parallel issues besides ensuring that the profit goes to the farmers, in order to ensure a full proof system. Furthermore, Laugero informs that:
“...family farming represents 95 percent of goat production, 22 percent of cattle production, 30 percent of sheep production, 33 percent of honey production, 25 percent of fruit production, 60 percent of fresh vegetables, and 15 percent of grains”.
 
 
 
 
Source(s):
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/08/new-label-defends-family-farming-in-argentina/