Our Blog
"The Other "
Discovering 'the other'...the 'voices' and perspectives of the global peasant movement...
The focus of our blog is on all those "Others" who seek the empowerment of small farmers and their communities throughout the developing world.
Our intention is build and share our understandings of those "Others" (what they think and why they think that way) to reveal new pathways to a more socially, environmentally and economically just future.
Please connect , check it out and offer a comment!!
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| Say ‘No!’ to Corporate Control of Agriculture and Food |
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La Via Campesina Call to Action
17 April 2010 - Join the International Day of Peasant Struggle To commemorate the InternationalDay of Peasant Struggle on April 17th 2010, the international peasant movement La Via Campesina calls uponmember organisations, allies and supporters to unite against transnationalcorporations (TNCs), which seek complete control over food and agriculturesystems around the world. On April 17th 1996, nineteen landless Brazilian peasants who were defending theirright to produce food by demanding access to land were massacred by themilitary police. Since the massacre at ElDorado dos Carajás, every year on this date actionsare organised around the world by farmers’ organisations, communities, studentgroups, non-governmental organizations and activists, in order to demand foodsovereignty and peasants’ rights to produce food. The year 2009 ended with threeinternational summits: the Food and Agriculture Organization World Summit onFood Security in Rome, the World TradeOrganisation Ministerial Conference in Genevaand the United Nations’ Climate Summit in Copenhagen.At each event, TNCs displayed their intention to control food and agriculturesystems, markets, lands, seeds and water—indeed all of nature—worldwide. TNCssuch as Monsanto Company, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Nestlé deployedarmies of lobbyists at these events to shape policies to their benefit. For example, US-based MonsantoCompany is lobbying to receive public subsidies for Roundup Ready soybeans,which are genetically-modified to resist glyphosate (sold by the corporation asRoundup), the most widely used herbicide in the world. Monsanto claims RoundupReady soybeans reduce climate change because resistance to Roundup means thesoybeans can be grown without ploughing the soil (which releases carbondioxide), known as ‘no tillage’ or ‘conservation tillage’ agriculture. Monsantoargues that it should therefore be eligible for carbon credits from the CleanDevelopment Mechanism of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. Yet the reality is that Monsantoand other TNCs are some of the primary contributers to climate change and otherenvironmental crises, because they promote an unsustainable model of industrialagriculture. Additionally, TNCs exacerbatepoverty and economic recession, worldwide. As they consolidate their controlover lands and agricultural markets, TNCs expel small farmers and peasants fromtheir lands and reduce employment opportunities in rural areas, therebyswelling urban slums with even more desperate and unemployed families. TNCs are making huge profitswhile hunger and poverty are on the rise. Thus, an offensive against TNCs isnow a priority for La Via Campesina. Our movement envisions a world in whichTNCs such as Monsanto, Cargill, Carrefour and Walmart, and their destruction ofnature and humanity, will cease to exist. To replace them will be billions ofpeasants on small and medium-sized farms, producing healthy food for local andregional markets, preserving biodiversity, protecting water aquifers,sequestering carbon and revitalizing rural economies. To mark the 17th of April 2010,La Via Campesina calls upon its members and allies to join forces and increaseresistance against TNCs, and to amplify the voices and rights of peasantsworldwide. What can you do?
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