Farming for a better food system

Corporations are increasing their control of the world’s food systems. From field to fork, this concentration of corporate power has devastating consequences for farmers and eaters alike. 

Crop diversity is disappearing as corporations consolidate their shares of the global seed market and push uniform, one-size-fits-all seeds that require costly synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Land and soil are degrading as decades of these inputs take their toll. Companies are buying up fertile land and relegating farmers, especially small-scale farmers in the Global South, to marginal land. Farmers are impoverished as corporations grow richer.

But there’s another way.

Aminata Seydou Ba leads a women's group in Lerabé, Senegal, supported by Inter Pares counterpart, ENDA Pronat. She and her fellow group members farm food for their community, using practices that nourish the Earth and keep biodiversity alive.

“It’s not enough to have land for food self-sufficiency,” Aminata says. It’s also about caring for that land.

Farmers like Aminata plant a diversity of crops, save seeds from them for next season’s planting and breed crops better suited to their environmental conditions. They’re protecting agricultural biodiversity on their farms. They use agroecology – farming with nature instead of against it – to ensure their land stays healthy for future generations.

For decades, Inter Pares has collaborated with counterparts on sustainable food production. From working with Deccan Development Society in India, to supporting the National Farmers Union in Canada, Inter Pares helps communities build up their own food systems. Along with supporting innovative, Earth-friendly farming practices, this involves advocating for policies to support small-scale producers.

In 2022, Inter Pares began advancing these goals with five more counterparts and 25,000 farmers, including Aminata, in Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo. This project supports agroecological farming, local food systems development and women's empowerment, while challenging government to develop policies for the common good rather than private gain.

We’re honoured to support farmers like Aminata growing food – their way.

Support farmers like Aminata by becoming a monthly donor today.

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