By Sarah Siska, Executive Director, FAN-NWO
Earlier this fall, I traveled from Thunder Bay to Kandy, Sri Lanka, representing the Food Action Network of Northwestern Ontario as part of the North American delegation to the 3rd Global Nyéléni Forum on Food Sovereignty. I joined more than 700 people from over 100 countries all working toward one goal: reclaiming people’s power over food systems.
Food sovereignty is the idea that communities should have real decision-making power over how food is grown, shared, and cared for. While the term was named globally by La Vía Campesina in 1996 (the year I was born!), people around the world have been living it for generations: protecting land and water, defending food as a right, and organizing against systems of oppression. Not everyone uses the term, but the work of food sovereignty is happening every day, including right here in Northwestern Ontario.
Our region faces many of the same challenges that came up at the Nyéléni Forum: growing corporate control in food and retail, climate-related disruptions to harvests and waterways, the erosion of workers’ rights, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on lands, waters, foods, cultures, and community well-being. Yet we also share the same sources of strength: relationships, mutual care, and collective action. Across Northwestern Ontario, people are embodying food sovereignty through seed saving, land-based education, community food programs, small-scale production and harvesting, and a growing desire to understand and shape our food systems.
At the Forum, delegates worked together to draft the Kandy Declaration, a collective statement to be shared ahead of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The challenge was enormous: how do you capture so many diverse experiences from across the globe in just one document? Real change, we agreed, won’t come from policy alone. It starts with people coming together to share stories, take action, and care for one another.
As part of the North American delegation, we reflected on what it means to live in the “belly of the beast.” Our governments and corporations drive immense harm globally, yet we also face urgent local struggles: rising poverty and food insecurity, unaffordable groceries, disappearing farmland, degraded water systems, and ongoing colonial land theft. Understanding how these forces connect, both in our home communities and elsewhere, was a constant theme. The question we asked ourselves was: what responsibility do we have to act locally, in partnership with people elsewhere?
Coming home, I’ve been thinking that there really is no “local” without the global, and vice versa. It’s all part of an interconnected web. The Nyéléni Forum reminded me that our region’s food sovereignty efforts are part of a living global movement, and that transformation must also happen here, through the ways we organize, share resources, and strengthen our regional food networks. The motto of this year’s forum was “systemic transformation is now or never.” By the end, it had shifted to “systemic transformation is now and forever.” For me, that shift captured the hope we need: yes, change must start now, but it’s never too late to join the movement.
As we bring the Kandy Declaration home, FAN-NWO will be inviting our partners and communities to come together to explore what food sovereignty looks like in our own backyards. The work ahead is about deepening relationships, sharing knowledge, and strengthening the roots of this movement across Northwestern Ontario. Our local food systems work is part of something much larger, and the seeds planted in Sri Lanka will need care and tending here too.
To learn more about FAN-NWO, visit nwofood.ca and find us on social media @nwofood.
