Sustaining Agriculture: Voices from the South
On a bitterly cold evening in Ottawa last March, more than 500 people gathered at a public forum to hear eight farmers, scientists and environmental activists from Asia, Africa and Latin America speak about their experiences with genetically engineered (GE) food crops. The Ottawa meeting was the culmination of a week-long series of events that took these international activists to public meetings in Montreal, Saskatoon and Ottawa. While in Ottawa, the activists also met with Members of Parliament, testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and spent a day in a roundtable discussion with over 30 Canadian government officials involved with various aspects of biotechnology. In every meeting, the international activists warned that the loss of farmers' control over traditional crops and seed varieties would undermine the foundations of food production around the world. They asked that Canada refrain from promoting GE in the South.
Canada is the world's third largest producer of GE food. Much of the corn, soya and canola grown in Canada is the result of transgenic breeding, whereby genes from one species have been inserted into another species. Bt corn, for instance, is corn crossed with the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteria, designed to resist pests. Though the Canadian government has declared GE food to be safe, there have been no long-term studies on the health impacts of GE food - the technology is simply too new.
Of particular concern to international farm activists is Canada's role in promoting GE food crops internationally. In tandem with industry, the Canadian government engages in trade missions, research collaboration, and "capacity-building" to internationally promote Canada's regulatory system, which does not differentiate between GE products and other "novel foods". Canada recently allied with the United States and Australia at the World Trade Organization to try to overturn a widely-supported de facto moratorium on GE foods in the European Union. Canada also recently attempted to overturn an international moratorium on sterile "Terminator" seeds that have been engineered to prevent farmers from saving seeds from one crop season to the next. This technology is a grave threat to farming systems as it takes control out of the hands of farmers and makes them dependent on multinational seed companies. Canada's position on terminator seeds outrages farmers from both Canada and the South, and was a recurrent theme in the meetings in Ottawa, Montreal and Saskatoon.
Samamma and Narsamma, two farmers from India who spoke at various events throughout the week, explained how they rely on less than two hectares of farmland for their food, fuel and fodder. These small farms, like millions of other farms throughout the South, are completely self-sufficient and provide for all the food basics they and their families need, plus a small surplus that is marketed. Samamma and Narsamma have a profound knowledge of chemical-free biodiversity-based farming, know how to nourish soils and how to select, store and regenerate seeds from season to season.
Seed saving among farmers like Sammamma and Narsamma is the basis of global food security and ensures that biological diversity is maintained through the continuous evolution of plants in diverse environments. By contrast, when genetically-engineered seeds are purchased, costs are increased and their use is tied to the signing of a contract that states that the farmer will not save seeds for reuse. Ultimately this results in the concentration and privatization of the most basic of all human endeavors - the production of food.
Another concern raised by the international visitors was the contamination of local plant varieties by GE crops. This concern was eloquently expressed by Melina Hernández Sosa, a Zapotec indigenous woman from Mexico. American GE corn, such as StarLink, has contaminated traditional varieties of Mexican corn. For Mexico, this contamination is of grave concern as StarLink is not approved for human consumption, yet has infiltrated their primary food source. Moreover, Mexico is one of the world's most important centers of biological diversity for corn and the loss of this crucial diversity has serious implications not only for Mexican farmers but for the entire world.
The widespread public interest in these issues was reflected in the numbers of people attending the public events in Saskatoon, Montreal and Ottawa. P.V. Satheesh of Deccan Development Society (DDS) in India said that he was encouraged by the hundreds of people crowded into the hall in downtown Ottawa. "We are very happy to see that Canadians are concerned about these issues and that they support us," he said. "We also learned that Canadian farmers are facing similar problems and therefore we must all continue to work together to find solutions."
The events mentioned above were presented by the Working Group on Canada's Policy with Regards to Agricultural Biotechnology and Developing Countries which includes: the Canadian Organic Growers, Council of Canadians, ETC Group, Inter Pares, The National Farmers Union, Polaris Institute, the Social Justice Committee, United Church of Canada and USC Canada.
This work was made possible with the aid of grants from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa.
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