The reference in food safety received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, in recognition of their fight in the search for a paradigm shift in the production, distribution and consumption of food.
Miryam Kurganoff of Gorban received the highest academic distinction, the title of Honorary Doctor of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. The distinction was proposed by the Casilda Agrotechnical School in recognition of its task of promoting Food Sovereignty and its militant and pedagogical action around the problem.
Food Sovereignty is a concept proposed by Vía Campesina, in 1996, which offers an alternative arising from the peasantry and social organizations of impoverished countries, to the neoliberal policies in force in South America. This paradigm is based on the right of people to define their own sustainable policies and strategies for the production, distribution and consumption of food, which guarantee the right to food for the entire population, based on small and medium production, respecting their own cultures and diversity. It is based on agroecological, biodiverse and sovereignly independent agriculture, which replaces large-scale and homogenizing agroindustrial agriculture, based on input technology and aimed at export.
Kurganoff de Gorban has a degree in nutrition, a professor at the UBA, and was the driving force behind the creation of the network of Food Sovereignty Chairs (CALISA), which has a presence in 49 public universities in Argentina. In the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, the Free Chair of Food Sovereignty has been taught since 2017 and is based in the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and the Agrotechnical School.
The awarding of the Honoris Causa Doctorate degree was carried out by the rector Franco Bartolacci, and the director of the Libertador General San Martín Agrotechnical School, Graciela Mandolini, was the godmother of this event.
The Rector maintained that the distinction that the UNR grants to Miryiam Kurganoff de Gorban is a recognition of her militancy and the debates that are essential to give and deepen. “When we choose who we recognize, we are defining the values that define us as an institution, so it is necessary that the Universidad Nacional de Rosario take the flags of Food Sovereignty and make them central and strategic,” Bartolacci highlighted, promoting debate around the productive model and hunger, a “situation that we inhabit and should consider the great national shame.”
The rector extended his recognition to all the teachers and researchers who work on this problem and made the commitment that “the Universidad Nacional de Rosario genuinely assumes, in a strategic and central way, the agenda of Food Sovereignty, to discuss, produce knowledge but also to generate institutional strategies and tools that can transform people's lives," and the Rector deepened that "it is inadmissible that from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario "Do not work together with local and regional governments to generate concrete policies, and not just studies, when there are kids and kids who are hungry in our region."
Graciela Mandolini took a tour of the history of Miryiam Gorban, who at 88 years old she defined as “a legend”, highlighting her childhood in Santiago del Estero and her youth in Buenos Aires as a member of the Communist Party, as well as her strong commitment community and its fight to make this world “other worlds possible and undoubtedly better.” The director highlighted that the cause of Miryam Gorban's life is to provide food, which is to take care of health, body and life with the political implication that this means, in this sense she highlighted the participation of the honoree in the debates by the Food Emergency Law in Argentina.
Miryam Kurganoff of Gorban stressed that the fight must be for true food surplus, economic independence and social justice, and valued the battle that environmental organizations are giving to the productive model, against the use of agrochemicals in fumigation, the network of Chairs Free in Food Sovereignty (CALISA). He considered CALISA as heir to the banners of the University Reform, in its intention to “open the doors of the University so that it is more democratic and at the service of the people.” The teacher highlighted the contradiction that our country is going through "that those of us who were going to be the supermarket of the world are in a food emergency."
He also highlighted that the fight is for everyone to have a plate of “healthy, safe and sovereign” food, and not with saving recipes “for food for the poor, which recommend adding more soy to replace meat.” For Kurganoff de Gorban, the food problem cannot be resolved with temporary measures, but rather the structure of the food system must be changed, guaranteeing access to land for small and medium-sized producers, subsidizing the production of healthy foods and not monoculture. Why don't we become one of the standard-bearers of soybeans, exporting healthy, safe and sovereign foods, valuing regional products and raising the flags of food security and sovereignty," remarked the brand new Doctor Honoris Causa of the UNR.
Journalist: Ileana Carrizo / Photographer: Camila Casero / Director: Andrés Aseguinolaza