Lima, June 3 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Demands for Peruvian government policy that prioritizes food security and sovereignty were high on Tuesday's agenda at the National Association of Ecological Producers conference.

Vice President of the organization Naida Quispe Farfán said that the government's emphasis on free trade agreement undermine such goal. The purpose of the conference is to organize organic farmers to promote organic food and demand government action in their favor.

The National Association of Ecological Producers accounts 172 local organizations and more than 12,000 small farmers. It promotes an alternative agricultural model that includes techniques free of pesticides, harmonious with the environment and independent of foreign inputs.

The organization believes that such methods will lead to the preservation of the Peruvian natural resources and to a healthy life for citizens.

Regarding food sovereignty, Naida Quispe Farfán stated that it means, “to be able to decide out of the products we have what can we produce, what amount goes for certain use, and how much goes to a particular place. Some goes to exports, the rest to national consumption. Therefore, we learn to prioritize for ourselves. How? According to our reality and our capacities."

The conference also touched on reaching out to the children of farmers by expanding programs to get them involved. Young participant Mayumi Villegas Huaycama from an organization called Youth from Ucayali explains that the association has helped her “gather a group of young people, children of farmers that are working their parcels of land and at the same time they are studying engineering, agronomy...We are doing it in one way or another so that they don't get isolated and became instead a source of backing and support for their parents.”

Ultimately, organizers of the conference see the future of small organic farmers as one of the struggle between the ecological healthy food movement and the free market forces that prioritize profits instead.