No solution to food crisis can be found without small-scale farmers
PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, June 4th, 2008
CPE and COAG denounce the expelling of small farmers representatives and other civil society organizations from the FAO conference on food crisis in Roma.
On Tuesday 3rd of June, around 13:30, farmers and representatives of civil society organisations staged an action at the press room of the conference center to deliver the message that millions of additional people are joining the ranks of the hungry while the corporations that control the global food system are making record profits. This action was also to denounce the fact that the world's food producers– farmers, fisher folk, agricultural workers and indigenous people– have been shut out of the discussion.
The European family farmers are in solidarity with this action. Everywhere in the world, and also in Europe, small scale farmers and peasants are suffering because of market liberalization and growing corporate power over food markets. In Europe, a farm disappears every minute. Sustainable family farming aiming at feeding the communities is replaced by a large scale agriculture, in the hands of agro-industry, supermarkets and banks, which does not meet the attempts of the population.
Sustainable family small-scale farming is the one who feed people while contributiong to cool down the earth. It is now urgent to shift from policies which support market deregulation and transnational companies to policies really supporting sustainable family farming.
We ask the European Ministers to deliver a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (Health Check) that meets the following priorities: a fairer distribution of subsidies in favour of small farms, a stop to any form of export subsidy and a strong support for locally based farm production.
Press contacts:
CPE office Tel.: 0032 (0) 22173112
COAG: Andoni Garcia (in spanish), Tel.: 0034 (0) 636451569