Marlen Sánchez and Nils McCune, both of the Nicaraguan Via Campesina organization Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo, will highlight the work of Via Campesina at a May 2 appearance at the UO.

Sánchez and McCune will discuss efforts to construct the Instituto Agroecológico Latinoamericano Mesoamérica, or the Latin American Institute of Agroecology of Mesoamerica, in Santo Tomás, Nicaragua. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in Room 115, Lawrence Hall.

While such institutes exist in other parts of Latin America, this would be the first regional, agroecology peasant university of its kind for Central America. Sánchez and McCune will also talk about how agroecology can be used as a tool to fight climate change, to create gender equity and achieve other goals.

La Via Campesina is an international social movement made up of peasants, agricultural workers, women farmers, fishermen and women, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and migrants around the world. The movement coined the term food sovereignty, or the right of all peoples to define their own local, culturally appropriate food systems.

Agroecology, a form of sustainable agriculture, is seen as a key pillar in food sovereignty.

The event, “Peasant Agroecology for Food Sovereignty and Mother Earth: Voices from the Via Campesina Movement,” is co-sponsored by the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies and the Student Sustainability Fund of the UO Student Sustainability Center. It is part of a two-week West Coast speaking tour.

More information on the tour is available on its website, friendsatc.org/tour, or Facebook page.