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The Free Trade Radicals hide behind poor third world farmers when
trying to slip another trade agreement past the Congress and the
public. As it turns out, third world farmers really like
producing food for their own families and countries, and really do not
like having to deal with the multinational grain traders that fleece
them.
Via Campesina is an international peasant farmer
organization. There are many others across Latin America, Asia
and Africa. They continually oppose forced trade liberalization,
because they have seen the consequences. Below the fold (hit
"read more") is the recent statement of many groups on the grounds of
food sovereignty.
*WILDERSWIL DECLARATION ON LIVESTOCK DIVERSITY *
*/Wilderswil/**/, Switzerland/**/, 6 September 2007/*
We, representatives of 30 organizations of pastoralists, indigenous
peoples, smallholder farmers and NGOs from 26 countries in both the
North and the South came together in Wilderswil at our "Livestock
Diversity Forum: Defending Food Sovereignty and Livestock Keepers'
Rights". We met in parallel with FAO's International Technical
Conference on Animal Genetic Resources held in Interlaken.
We are here to fight for our rights as livestock keepers. We realize
that we are just a small fraction of all the organizations that exist
throughout the world. But we recognise that our struggle is common to
the social organisations of nomadic pastoralists, herders, indigenous
peoples and small farmers in both the North and South. Our main purpose
of coming together was to further strengthen our movement and deepen
our analysis and collaboration.
*_ _*
*_The global livestock crisis_*
The industrial model of livestock production is causing the destruction
of our animal diversity as well as our own livelihoods. Today, the
industrial livestock breeding and production system is being imposed
globally as the dominant model for the world's livestock production. It
requires high levels of investment in technology and receives subsidies
and other resources, which have distorted the market. This has led to
an unprecedented concentration of, and dependence upon, the livestock
breeding industry. For example, there are only four globally operating
poultry breeding companies worldwide with only two of them controlling
half of the world's egg production. While the breeding companies are
Northern, the growing market for their products is increasingly in the
South because industrial livestock production is being promoted there.
The growth of industrial livestock production has already resulted in
the destruction of the livelihoods of small-scale livestock producers.
Furthermore this model of production is based on a dangerously narrow
genetic base of the world's livestock, propped up by the widespread use
of veterinary drugs. Yet this risky and high cost system is providing
more and more of our food: globally, one third of pigs, one half of
eggs, two thirds of milk and three quarters of broilers are produced
from industrial breeding lines.
*_ _*
*_How industrial livestock production_*_ *is advanced*_
The industrial model is imposed on us through land grabs and evictions
based on systems of private property ownership, forced sedenterisation
policies and disruption of pastoral migration routes, liberalization of
markets, contract farming, large scale economic development projects
such as mining (and their consequences such as the privatisation of
water resources by transnational companies), agrofuel production
schemes, and even through policies that aim to conserve nature through
national parks and protected areas. In recent decades, it has also been
achieved through the imposition of trade rules that enable dumping,
which destroys local markets, and that force us to produce food based
on the industrial model for export.
The policies of structural adjustment and the privatization of land,
water and veterinary services and the drive for proprietary
technologies, such as cloning and genetic modification, are other tools
used to destroy our way of life. Tragically, these policies have led to
an increase in competition for the appropriation of natural resources
which has resulted in a dramatic increase of violent conflicts, wars
and occupations.
This model of production is detrimental to health of both humans and
livestock. Marketing strategies are used to encourage high and
unhealthy quantities of livestock products for consumption. Health
measures that facilitate the global trade of industrially produced
livestock are destroying our local small-scale production. We cannot
accept that sanitary and hygiene regulations should be defined under
the control of the World Trade Organisation responding only to the
demand to liberalise markets. The standards of health and quality of
livestock products must respond to the needs of consumers and not the
needs of industry.
*_ _*
*_The consequences of industrial livestock production _*
We note the following consequences in our communities: loss of small
and family based production; smallholder bankruptcies and suicides;
economic dependency, including through importation of feed; destruction
of environment; young and new herders cannot enter into production
because of economic barriers; breakdown of social relations; government
research and breeding policies geared towards "high productivity" with
the indiscriminate introduction of new breeds which have caused us to
lose our local breeds.
*_Towards Food Sovereignty and collective rights_*
We affirm that it is not possible to conserve animal diversity without
protecting and strengthening the local communities that currently
maintain and nurture this diversity. We want livestock keeping that is
on a human scale. We defend a way of life that is linked deeply with
our cultures and spirituality and not just aimed at production. We are
building our capacities to organize ourselves to counter the pressure
to conform with the industrial model. We are adopting the framework of
food sovereignty which was developed by small farmers' movements and
others, who face many similar problems stemming from industrial
agriculture, and which is already starting to be recognized by several
governments. We will continue to further develop alternative research
approaches and technologies that allow us to be autonomous and put
control of genetic resources and livestock breeding in the hands of
livestock keepers and other small-scale producers. And we will organise
ourselves to conserve rare breeds.
We are committed to fighting for our lands, territories and grazing
pastures, our migratory routes, including trans-boundary routes. We
will build alliances with other social movements with similar aims and
continue to build international solidarity. We will fight for the
rights of livestock keepers which include the right to land, water,
veterinary and other services, culture, education and training, access
to local markets, access to information and decision making, that are
all essential for truly sustainable livestock production systems. We
are committed to finding ways of sharing access to land and other
resources with pastoralists, indigenous peoples, small farmers and
other food producers according to equitable, but controlled, access.
Ownership, knowledge and innovation at the community level are often of
a collective nature. Therefore local knowledge and biodiversity can
only be protected and promoted through collective rights. Collective
knowledge is intimately linked to cultural diversity, particular
ecosystems, and biodiversity and cannot be dissociated from either of
these three aspects. Any definition and implementation of the rights of
livestock keepers should take this fully into account. It is clear that
the rights of livestock keepers are not compatible with intellectual
property rights systems because these systems enable exclusive and
private monopoly control. There must be no patents or other forms of
intellectual property rights on biodiversity and the knowledge related
to it.
States should recognise the customary laws, territories, traditions,
customs and institutions of local communities and indigenous peoples,
which constitute the recognition of the self-determination and autonomy
of these peoples. Governments should accept and guarantee collective
rights and community control over natural resources, including communal
grazing lands and migration routes, water, and livestock breeds.
Governments should engage in creating legally binding international
instruments which would oblige States to guarantee the full respect of
these rights.
*_The FAO Global Plan of Action_*
The FAO Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources
contains a good analysis of some of the key causes behind the
destruction of the biodiversity of domestic animals and the undermining
of the livelihoods of local communities that nurture this diversity.
The Report squarely points to the industrial livestock system as one of
the main forces behind this destruction. However, in the Global Plan of
Action there is nothing that addresses these causes. It is totally
unacceptable that governments agree on a plan that does not challenge
the policies that cause the loss of diversity. Nor are governments even
committing themselves to make any substantial financial engagements to
implement their own Plan.
Defending livestock diversity is not a matter of genes but of collective rights.
The social organizations of pastoralists, herders and farmers have no
interest in participating in a plan which does not address the central
causes behind the destruction of livestock diversity but rather
provides crutches / weak support / for a collapsing global livestock
production system Because the Global Plan of Action does not challenge
industrial livestock production, we reinforce our commitment to
organise ourselves, to save livestock diversity and to counter the
negative forces bearing on us. However, we remain open and willing to
participate in any useful follow up that might be facilitated through
FAO.
--
International Operative Secretariat
La Via Campesina
Address of the International Operative Secretariat (IOS):
Jl. Mampang Prapatan XIV No. 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790
Jakarta - Indonesia
Phone: +62-21-7991890 Facs : +62-21-7993426
E-mail:
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http://www.viacampesina.org
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