PAN Gathers for Global Strategy Meeting in Rio

Pesticide Action Network is an international organization with Regional Centers in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America—and nothing brings home this point like a meeting of PAN International activists.

In November 2006, leaders from the five PAN regions met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to plan joint campaigns and map strategies for combating the global corporate agricultural system that promotes synthetic pesticides, controls food production and distribution, and damages human health and the environment.

At this meeting, the PAN International Planning Committee met as a formal body for the second time. This afforded an opportunity to detail how the Regional Centers—and the many other organizations that comprise PAN—will work together on joint international projects. The sessions also addressed how to strengthen PAN as a global campaigning network.

Representatives from North America reported that the meeting further solidified PAN’s new international structure. Campaigns are now facilitated by working groups focusing on pesticides and corporations, genetic engineering, food sovereignty, sustainable alternatives and community-based monitoring.

A highlight of the meeting was a food sovereignty workshop—conducted by PAN Asia and the Pacific and PAN Latin America—that helped the assembled activists articulate their vision of an agricultural system that could displace corporate control over food, and focus on equitable, sustainable food production by communities for local food security.

And, along the way, PAN delegates from five different continents had a chance to reconnect with old friends, to make new ones,and to experience the power that comes from being part of a global network working together towards a shared vision.