The world changes faster than ever and is characterized by a growing duality in economies where on one hand a few people are extremely rich, and a growing number of people experience hunger, poverty and injustice on the other. Paradoxically, most of the hunger and poverty is still occurring in rural areas where most of the family farming happens. Bad governance, irresponsible citizenship, omnipotence of big corporations and weak international institutions disrupt agriculture further.

Vredeseilanden envisions a world in which family farmers claim their rights to create sustainable livelihoods. They develop themselves within sustainable agricultural activities, in a way that is economically profitable, beneficial for the environment, social processes and local culture.

We realize that we are an organization of limited scale, and that we won’t succeed in our mission by working on our own. Therefore, we want to play our role strongly within the growing worldwide movement that values a future where the market logic includes environmental and social concerns. The seeds are there, we want to initiate, reinforce and/or encourage initiatives in which governments, civil society and the private sector worldwide tend to have more attention for social justice and environmental awareness.

In this context Vredeseilanden wants to contribute to viable livelihoods and empowerment of organized family farmers, male and female, in South and North.

We do so by

• improving their position in the whole agricultural chain, from production to consumption;
• improving policies at national and international level;
• stimulating consumer buying practices for more sustainable consumption.

Vredeseilanden considers farmer organisations as its direct partner organisatons. We have an important role to play in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes to bring together all the stakeholders (governments, civil society organizations, service organizations, private actors and consumers) and motivate them to create the conditions for a fair and sustainable market access and participation for family farmers. Thus bringing real change for thousands of families in rural areas.

Attention for diversity, equal opportunities for man and women, and active participation, are our main working principles and values.