250,000 Families Campaign

This chapter finds that the resistance orientation in Latin America dramatically obscures certain actualities of food activism through the blinding clarity of a series of little questioned dichotomies: global–local, North–South, rich–poor, and consumer– producer. It draws on Deleuze's criticism of representation in art in hopes of overcoming the modern "cliché" of resistance. The chapter examines two influential actors in the food movement scene in Ecuador that have become champions of social change in agriculture and food primarily through means of existence: the Colectivo Agroecológico, an informal collection of some 400 individuals and collectives dedicated to alternative, "non-violent" means of agriculture and food, the Movimiento de Economía Social y Solidaria del Ecuador (MESSE), a network of largely urban-based activists engaged in food circulation, creative marketing, and alternative currencies. It draws on the activity of the Colectivo and MESSE's ongoing "250,000 Families Campaign".