Peasant Seed Resistance: Via Campesina International Encounter of Seed Farmer's
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- Published on Thursday, 10 March 2011 14:02
(Bali, 7th March 2011) Members of La Via Campesina from Madagascar, El Salvador, France, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, South Korea, and Indonesia gathered in Bali for the seed farmers meeting before later joining the Fourth Session of the UN Seed Treaty Governing Body.
At the opening session, Henry Saragih, general coordinator of Via Campesina, highlighted the important strategic role peasants should play in the FAO Seed Treaty meeting to begin next week. He also hoped that the meeting will result in strengthening Via Campesina’s position on the protection of local seed and biodiversity to be presented to governments during the Seed Treaty meeting.
Alberto Gomez, coordinator for the Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Committee, also stated the importance of this meeting: “The world is facing multiple crises today and our world of agriculture is in the eye of storm; at the same time, it also plays a crucial role in offering solutions, with the protection of local seed being one way to confront the critical situation.”
Many small farmers around the world are being branded as criminals for breeding and exchanging local seeds, with biodiversity being lost due to transgenic and hybrid seeds. However, without seed, there is no agriculture, without agriculture there is no food and without food, there are no people. This meeting will also strengthen Via Campesina’s Global Campaign on Seed Exchange.
Peasants’ Right to Seeds: A Solution to the Food, Climate and Biodiversity Crise
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- Published on Thursday, 03 March 2011 13:52
Media Advisory
Seed Treaty meeting in Bali
(Jakarta, 3 March 2011) Seed farmers from all over the world, members of La Via Campesina, a global peasants' movement consisting of 150 member organizations in 70 countries and representing over 200 million peasants and rural workers, will participate in the Fourth Regular Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GB4ITPGFRA) that will be held in Nusa Dua, Bali, on 14-18 March 2011. During a series of meetings, seminars and events, they will represent seed farmers from all over the world who are the backbone of food production and the main creators and defenders of biodiversity.
Karnataka Farmers Say No to Unsafe Dupont GM Rice Field Trials
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- Published on Thursday, 18 November 2010 14:53
November 17, Dodballapur, Bangalore rural:- Farmers of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha [KRRS] today sent out a strong warning to the Multinational seed corporations trying to take control over India's seed sector by stopping the field trial of Dupont's genetically modified [GM] rice here. The open air experimental trial was being conducted at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, under GKVK by the Multinational Seed company. Hundreds of farmers from the area assembled at the KVK and staged a protest demonstration against such open air experiments of GM crops.
This field trials were recently permitted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the nodal agency for GM crop releases in India in its 103rd meeting held in New Delhi on 29th September 2010. Dupont, the second largest seed corporation in the world after Monsanto, is developing a GM rice using a transgenic SPT ( Seed Production technology), a proprietary technology.SPT technology that allows increase of large quantities of genetically male-sterile female inbred parent seed. This could then be used for commercial hybrid seed production.
The CBD did not stop the commercialization of biodiversity
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- Published on Friday, 12 November 2010 10:57
Press Release - Via Campesina
Read our position paper on CBD-Nagoya
(Jakarta, 12 November, 2010) La Via Campesina delegates attending the conference of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya from 19 to 29 October 2010 regret that the conference failed to achieve a radical decision to halt the mass commercialization and destruction of biodiversity.
Despite the positive decisions to impose a moratorium on geo-engineering and conserve the moratorium on Terminator technology, the conference failed to take the decisive measures needed to stop the biodiversity loss that threatens our survival.
Via Campesina celebrates the moratorium on geo-engineering as this technology is regarded as a false and damaging proposal for reversing climate change. It does not have the potential, as claimed, to reduce the production of green house gas emissions. Modifying the earth’s surface, oceans and atmosphere in this way is instead likely to have devastating impacts on biodiversity. We encourage the delegates at the upcoming COP16 climate change talks in Cancun at the end of this year to endorse the moratorium imposed at Nagoya.