SASKATOON – The National Farmers Union has been asked to participate in an international women’s forum to be held in Beijing, China next year.
The NFU is scheduled to conduct workshops at Forum ’95 on the effects of global trade, said women’s president, Karen Fyfe. She is hoping to send four women to the 10-day conference, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8.
Forum ’95 is a conference for non-governmental women’s groups. One of the forum’s goals is to work with United Nations countries to achieve global equality for all women by the year 2000.
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Having a farm women’s voice at the international forum is important, said Fyfe.
“The feminine face of agriculture just is not being seen by national governments.”
Initially, that face was also missing from the Beijing agenda.
“When the agenda of Beijing came out there were a few of us around the world that looked at this and said ‘Ah ah, there is something missing here.’ “
That sparked the formation of an international farm women’s working group. Women, Food and Agriculture was created for Forum ’95 to raise government awareness of agriculture issues. About two-thirds of the members are from farm organizations or farm women’s co-operatives from around the world, said Fyfe.
In Beijing, the working group will be focused on farm issues, especially how trade agreements affect national food security, said Fyfe.
The working group will encourage farm women to share their life experiences, analyze global trade agreements and create fairer trading strategies to ensure food security for farm households around the world.
Fyfe would like to see long-term relationships between women’s groups form during the conference and continue into the future.
Unity among farm women would be a first step in lobbying nations on international trading policies, said Fyfe.
As the “ambassadors of Canadian agriculture” the NFU hopes to receive funding from the federal government and Canadian non-government organizations with an international mandate.
