La Vía Campesina (from Spanish: la vía campesina, meaning the peasant way) is an international farmers organization founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries,[1] and describing itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe".

[2] La Via Campesina advocates for family farm-based sustainable agriculture, and was the group that coined the term "food sovereignty".

[3] Starting in the 1980s governments were intervening less in the rural countryside, which weakened corporate control over peasants' organizations while making a living in agriculture become more difficult.

[4] As a result, national peasant groups began to form ties with transnational organizations, starting in Latin America and then on a global scale.

[5] The agrarian peasants' movement moved to challenge the hegemonic ideology of neoliberalism in global economics and to find alternatives that would protect the rights of workers around the world.

[10] These agreements caused backlash from many people around the world for focusing on technical problems rather than the human right to access to food, especially for those living in the Global South.

It has presented in several international fora, such as: Via Campesina has been involved in the negotiations[14] of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people living in Rural areas, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018.

[16] In recent years, the movement has placed greater emphasis on gender issues and women's rights, and strengthened its opposition to transnational corporations.

[4] La Vía Campesina also partners with other social movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to strengthen its international presence.

Democratic decision-making is central to the mission of La Vía Campesina, and it has been dedicated to fair representation and engagement of all participants, making structural changes when necessary.

[9] According to Michael Menser, La Via Campesina is an example of the success and expansion of transnational movements in regards to participatory democracy due to its organization model and adaptation to ensure fair representation.

[30] For example, US corporations have control over food production by subcontracting smaller farmers, which allows them to participate and profit without taking on the risks of farming, such as weather and disease.