As Executive Secretary of RIPESS Intercontinental, Sandra Moreno Cadena comes to the Nyéléni Forum with the mission of weaving together the voices and experiences of regional networks, highlighting the contributions of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) as a key pathway toward sustainable food systems in both rural and urban territories.
Sandra emphasizes that SSE provides answers where the market fails: fostering generational renewal in agriculture, creating decent jobs—especially for rural women—facilitating transitions toward formalization, and linking the care economy with agroecology.
Beyond her role in RIPESS, Sandra also brings her own experience from the Agroecological Network of La Alpujarra (Spain), established between 2015 and 2016, composed of 80% rural women. The network operates through a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) that connects producers and consumers to collectively certify agroecological farms. They also self-manage a monthly stall at the ecological market in Granada and have set up a community seed bank, recovering traditional varieties and preserving the knowledge of women who have safeguarded seeds and recipes for generations.
The challenges are multiple: limited access to land, rural depopulation, youth migration, legal barriers for artisanal transformation, and little institutional support for collective initiatives compared to individual entrepreneurship. Yet, SSE in La Alpujarra has strengthened local markets, created sustainable consumption alternatives, and promoted short food supply chains that bridge rural and urban areas.
Sandra brings to Nyéléni concrete proposals: PGS, seed banks, collective seed recovery projects, and Andalusian eco-market networks.
“We sow an economy of seeds of solidarity to uproot violence.”
¡Discover the stories of RIPESS delegation in the campaign Seeds of Solidarity on the Road to Nyéléni!
