The deterioration which the agricultural sector of the countries of Latin America is suffering, as a consequence of the application of neo-liberal policies, increases the food dependency of the people A proof of this is what has occurred in Mexico, over several years of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement.) This was one of the conclusions arrived at by the workshop on Agriculture and Food Sovereignty in the Third Hemispheric Conference of the Struggle Against the FTAA This workshop was led by the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC), which included the participation of Rafael Alegría of Vía Campesina, Cecilia Castro of the National Coordination of the Ayala Plan of México, Leonardo Chirino of the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba, and Wilder Sánchez of the Peasants´ Confederation of Peru (CCP.) It was led by Valquimar Reis of the Landless Peasants´ Movement (MST) of Brazil and Freddy Congo of Ecudor´s FENOCIN. It was remarked in the event that NAFTA, aside from affecting the food sovereignty of Mexicans, has intensified the migration from the countryside to the city, which in turn provides a cheap labor force which is used by the United States to reduce production costs of goods which are then exported to our countries at low prices which, in turn, cause thousands of producers to go under. For this reason it is necessary to rescue the concept of food sovereignty as a citizens´ concept, since it is a human right and cannot be abandoned as a public function of the state. The event also questioned and denounced the negative character of the supposed donations of the United States through their food aid programs like the World Food Program, considering it an open avenue for the exportation of the US agricultural surplus. In that respect, the Executive Coordinator of the CLOC-Andean Region, Wílder Sánchez of the Peasants´ Confederation of Peru, remarked that food sovereignty is an issue which has to do with industrialized agricultural production models and subsistence farming going on in Latin America. He added that food and agriculture are not commodities but basic human rights for the whole world "Food sovereignty cannot exist without democracy, or at the margin of policies which defend national production, and it means the defense of just prices and markets for our products, our seeds, and our natural resources. Food sovereignty is part of the struggle against the FTAA, against neo-liberalism, and against the external debt," remarked Wilder Sánchez. In the workshop several proposals were also put forward. One was the necessity of insisting on the rescue of the concept of food sovereignty, such as the right to produce and consume our own food products Another was to propel forward a campaign against the use of the World Food Program as a way for channelling the surpluses of developed countries, insisting that these funds be used to raise the prices for the products of small farmers, and another was the continuation of the struggle to remove food and agriculture from the negotiations of the World Trade Organization and the FTAA Finally, it was suggested that national and regional markets be rescued and defended to guarantee just prices for our producers and to promote strategies of regional integration, based on the principles of solidarity, cooperation, and solidarity * José Coronado. CCP- Minga Informativa