Seeds, Stories & Solidarity (Fall 2025) - Magazine - Page 48
Nettie Wiebe is a farmer
in Saskatchewan, Canada,
a long-time small farm
activist, a member of the
National Farmers Union,
and one of the founders of
La Vía Campesina.
Real Food Media: Can you share a little bit about your
own history and involvement in La Vía Campesina?
Nettie Wiebe: From the beginning, I’ve been an activist
on farming issues and feminism. The first attempt to
construct an International Coordinating Committee [of La
Vía Campesina] was a regional process, and each of the
regions presented a male for the leadership, which is not
surprising because agriculture is, in most places, deeply
patriarchal.
In an attempt to insert the voice of women, our region—the
North America-Mexico region— elected me as the only
woman on the ICC. So my work early in this organization
was to transform it and push for changes, which would
actually recognize the contribution and the role of women,
not only in growing food, but in holding communities
together, feeding families, ecological care, gathering
seeds… Everything to do with food is in women’s hands
most of the time. So it seemed to me, and to many others,
that if we were going to build a movement which was
actually transformative, it would have to include women at
the center of it.
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