Post by seacid on Nov 8, 2007 6:27:44 GMT 8
Small scale sustainable farmers are cooling down the earth*
Current global modes of production, consumption and trade have caused
massive environmental destruction including global warming that is
putting at risk our planet's ecosystems and pushing human communities
into disasters. Global warming shows the failure of a development model
based on high fossil energy consumption, overproduction and trade
liberalization.
Farmers - men and women - around the world are joining hands with other
social movements, organizations, people and communities to ask for and
to develop radical social, economic and political transformations to
reverse the current trend.
Farmers - and especially small farmers - are among the first to suffer
from climate change. Changing weather patterns bring unusual droughts,
floods and storms, destroying farmlands, stock and farmers houses.
Moreover, plants and animal species are disappearing at an unprecedented
pace. Farmers have to adjust to these changes by adapting their seeds
and usual production systems to an unpredictable situation. Moreover,
droughts and floods are leading to harvest failures, increasing the
number of people going hungry in the world. Studies predict a decline in
global farm output of 3 to 16% by 2080. In tropical regions, global
warming is likely to lead to a serious decline in agriculture (up to 50%
in Senegal and 40% in India) and to the acceleration of farmland turning
into desert. On the other hand, huge areas in Russia and Canada will
turn into arable land for the first time in human history, yet it is
still unknown how these regions will be able to grow crops.
Corporate food production and consumption are significantly contributing
to global warming and to the destruction of rural communities.
Intercontinental food transport, intensive monoculture production, land
and forest destruction and the use of chemical inputs in agriculture are
transforming agriculture into an energy consumer and are contributing to
climate change. Under neo-liberal policies imposed by the World Trade
Organisation, the regional and bilateral Free Trade Agreements, as well
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, food is produced
with oil-based pesticides and fertilizers and transported all around the
world for transformation and consumption.
Via Campesina, a movement bringing together millions of small farmers
and producers around the world, asserts that it is time to radically
change our way to produce, transform, trade and consume food and
agricultural products. We believe that sustainable small-scale farming
and local food consumption will reverse the actual devastation and
support millions of farming families. Agriculture can also contribute to
cool down the earth by using farm practises that store CO² and reduce
considerably the use of energy on farms.
Moreover, farms can also contribute to the production of renewable
energy, especially through solar and biogas energy.
*Globalized agriculture and corporate food production create global
warming *
*1/ By transporting food all around the world *
Fresh and packaged food is travelling around the world. In Europe and
the USA, for example, it is now common to find fruits, vegetables, meat
or wine from Africa, South America or Oceania; and we find Asian rice in
the Americas or in Africa. Fossil fuel used for food transport is
releasing tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The Swiss peasants'
organisation UNITERRE calculated that one kilo of asparagus imported
from Mexico needs 5 liters of oil to travel by plane (11,800km) to
Switzerland. While a kilo of asparagus produced in Switzerland only
needs 0.3 liters of oil to reach the consumer./ /
*2/ By imposing industrial forms of production (mechanization,
intensification, use of agrochemicals, monoculture...) *
The so called "modernized" agriculture, especially industrial
monoculture, is destroying natural processes in soil (which leads to the
storing of CO² in organic matter) and replaces them by chemical
processes based on fertilizers and pesticides. Due notably to the use of
chemical fertilizers, intensive agriculture and animal production
monocultures produce important quantities of nitrous oxide (NO2), the
third most significant greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. In
Europe 40% of the energy consumed on the farm is due to the production
of nitrogen fertilizers. Moreover, industrial agriculture production
consumes much more energy (and releases much more CO2) to run its giant
tractors to harrow and plow the land and to process the food.
*3/ By destroying biodiversity (and carbon sinks)*
Carbon is naturally captured from the air by plants and it is stocked in
wood and organic matter in the soils. Some ecosystems such as native
forests, peat lands and meadows stock more carbon than others.
This carbon cycle has been part of the climate balance for hundreds of
thousands of years. Corporate agribusiness has now shattered this
balance by imposing widespread chemical agriculture (with massive use of
oil-based pesticides and fertilizers), by burning forests for
monoculture plantations and by destroying peat lands and biodiversity.
*4/ By converting land and forests into non-agricultural areas*
Forests, pastures and cultivated lands are rapidly converted into
industrial agricultural production areas or into shopping malls,
industrial complexes, big houses, large infrastructure projects or
tourist resorts. This in turn causes massive carbon releases and reduces
the capacity of the environment to absorb the carbon released into the
atmosphere.
*5/ By transforming agriculture from an energy producer into an energy
consumer *
On the energy level, the first role of plants and agriculture is to
transform solar energy into energy in the form of sugars and cellulose
that can be directly absorbed in food or transformed by animals into
animal products. This is a natural process which brings energy into the
food chain. However, the industrialization process of agriculture over
the last two centuries has lead to an agriculture which consumes energy
(fertilizers, use of tractors, oil based agrochemicals...).
*The false solutions *
*Agrofuels *(/fuels produced from plants, agriculture and forestry)/ are
often presented as one of the solutions to the current energy crisis.
Under the Kyoto protocol, 20% of the global energy consumption should
come from renewable sources by 2020; this includes agrofuels. However,
leaving aside the insanity of producing food to feed cars while so many
people are starving, industrial agrofuel production will actually
/*increase global warming instead of reducing it*/. In exchange for some
minor and unproven greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil oil (except
for sugercane), agrofuel production will increase intensive monoculture
plantations of oil palm, corn or sugarcane; and will contribute to
deforestation and biodiversity destruction. Intensive agrofuel
production is not a solution to global warming; neither will it solve
the global crisis in the agricultural sector.
*Carbon trading*
Under the Kyoto Protocol and other international schemes "carbon
trading" is presented as a solution for global warming. It is a
privatization of carbon after the privatization of land, air, seeds,
water and other resources. It allows governments to allocate permits to
big industrial polluters so they can trade "rights to pollute" amongst
themselves. Some other programs encourage industrialized countries to
finance cheap carbon dumps such as large-scale plantations in the South
as a way to avoid reducing their own emissions. Large plantations or
natural conservation areas are therefore being created in Asia, Africa
and Latin America kicking communities out of their land and reducing
their right to access their own forests, fields and rivers.
*Genetically modified crops and trees*
Genetically modified trees and crops are now being developed for
agrofuel production. Genetically modified organisms will not solve any
environmental crisis as they themselves pose a risk to the environment
as well as to health and safety. Moreover, they increase corporate
control over seeds, depriving farmers of their right to grow, develop,
select, diversify and exchange their own seeds.
These GM trees and crops are part of the "second generation" of
agrofuels based on cellulose while the first generation is based on the
different forms of sugar from crops. Even when it doesn't use
genetically modified varieties, this "second generation" raises similar
concerns.
*Food sovereignty provides livelihoods to millions and protects life on
earth*
Via Campesina believes that solutions to the current crisis have to
emerge from organized social actors that are developing modes of
production, trade and consumption based on justice, solidarity and
healthy communities. No technological fix will solve the current global
environmental and social disaster.
Sustainable small-scale farming is labor-intensive and requires little
energy use; it can contribute to cooling down the earth :
*
by storing more CO² in soil organic matter through sustainable
production (extensive beef and sheep production on grassland
has a
positive greenhouse gas balance)
*
by replacing nitrogen fertilizers by organic agriculture or/and
cultivating nitrogen-fixing plants which capture nitrogen
directly
from the air
*
by producing biogas from plant and animal waste, while returning
sufficient organic matter to the soil
*
by producing solar energy on all agricultural roofs (with
investment support for the small farms)...
All around the world, we practice and defend small-scale sustainable
family farming and we demand* *food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the
right of peoples to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced
through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to
define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations
and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart
of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and
corporations. Food sovereignty prioritizes local and national economies
and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture,
artisan-style fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production,
distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic
sustainability.
*We urgently demand of local, national and international decision
makers: *
1/ The complete dismantling of agribusiness companies: they are stealing
the land of small producers, producing junk food and creating
environmental disasters.
2/ The replacement of industrialized agriculture and animal production
by small-scale sustainable agriculture supported by genuine agrarian
reform programs.
3/ The promotion of sane and sustainable energy policies. That includes
consuming less energy and producing solar and biogas energy on the farms
instead of heavily promoting agrofuel production as is currently the
case.
4/ The implementation of agricultural and trade policies at local,
national and international levels supporting sustainable agriculture and
local food consumption. This includes the ban on the kinds of subsidies
that lead to the dumping of cheap food on markets.
*For the livelihoods of billions of small producers around the world,*
*For people's health and the planet's survival: *
*We demand food sovereignty and** we are committed to struggle to
achieve it collectively.*
Current global modes of production, consumption and trade have caused
massive environmental destruction including global warming that is
putting at risk our planet's ecosystems and pushing human communities
into disasters. Global warming shows the failure of a development model
based on high fossil energy consumption, overproduction and trade
liberalization.
Farmers - men and women - around the world are joining hands with other
social movements, organizations, people and communities to ask for and
to develop radical social, economic and political transformations to
reverse the current trend.
Farmers - and especially small farmers - are among the first to suffer
from climate change. Changing weather patterns bring unusual droughts,
floods and storms, destroying farmlands, stock and farmers houses.
Moreover, plants and animal species are disappearing at an unprecedented
pace. Farmers have to adjust to these changes by adapting their seeds
and usual production systems to an unpredictable situation. Moreover,
droughts and floods are leading to harvest failures, increasing the
number of people going hungry in the world. Studies predict a decline in
global farm output of 3 to 16% by 2080. In tropical regions, global
warming is likely to lead to a serious decline in agriculture (up to 50%
in Senegal and 40% in India) and to the acceleration of farmland turning
into desert. On the other hand, huge areas in Russia and Canada will
turn into arable land for the first time in human history, yet it is
still unknown how these regions will be able to grow crops.
Corporate food production and consumption are significantly contributing
to global warming and to the destruction of rural communities.
Intercontinental food transport, intensive monoculture production, land
and forest destruction and the use of chemical inputs in agriculture are
transforming agriculture into an energy consumer and are contributing to
climate change. Under neo-liberal policies imposed by the World Trade
Organisation, the regional and bilateral Free Trade Agreements, as well
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, food is produced
with oil-based pesticides and fertilizers and transported all around the
world for transformation and consumption.
Via Campesina, a movement bringing together millions of small farmers
and producers around the world, asserts that it is time to radically
change our way to produce, transform, trade and consume food and
agricultural products. We believe that sustainable small-scale farming
and local food consumption will reverse the actual devastation and
support millions of farming families. Agriculture can also contribute to
cool down the earth by using farm practises that store CO² and reduce
considerably the use of energy on farms.
Moreover, farms can also contribute to the production of renewable
energy, especially through solar and biogas energy.
*Globalized agriculture and corporate food production create global
warming *
*1/ By transporting food all around the world *
Fresh and packaged food is travelling around the world. In Europe and
the USA, for example, it is now common to find fruits, vegetables, meat
or wine from Africa, South America or Oceania; and we find Asian rice in
the Americas or in Africa. Fossil fuel used for food transport is
releasing tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The Swiss peasants'
organisation UNITERRE calculated that one kilo of asparagus imported
from Mexico needs 5 liters of oil to travel by plane (11,800km) to
Switzerland. While a kilo of asparagus produced in Switzerland only
needs 0.3 liters of oil to reach the consumer./ /
*2/ By imposing industrial forms of production (mechanization,
intensification, use of agrochemicals, monoculture...) *
The so called "modernized" agriculture, especially industrial
monoculture, is destroying natural processes in soil (which leads to the
storing of CO² in organic matter) and replaces them by chemical
processes based on fertilizers and pesticides. Due notably to the use of
chemical fertilizers, intensive agriculture and animal production
monocultures produce important quantities of nitrous oxide (NO2), the
third most significant greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. In
Europe 40% of the energy consumed on the farm is due to the production
of nitrogen fertilizers. Moreover, industrial agriculture production
consumes much more energy (and releases much more CO2) to run its giant
tractors to harrow and plow the land and to process the food.
*3/ By destroying biodiversity (and carbon sinks)*
Carbon is naturally captured from the air by plants and it is stocked in
wood and organic matter in the soils. Some ecosystems such as native
forests, peat lands and meadows stock more carbon than others.
This carbon cycle has been part of the climate balance for hundreds of
thousands of years. Corporate agribusiness has now shattered this
balance by imposing widespread chemical agriculture (with massive use of
oil-based pesticides and fertilizers), by burning forests for
monoculture plantations and by destroying peat lands and biodiversity.
*4/ By converting land and forests into non-agricultural areas*
Forests, pastures and cultivated lands are rapidly converted into
industrial agricultural production areas or into shopping malls,
industrial complexes, big houses, large infrastructure projects or
tourist resorts. This in turn causes massive carbon releases and reduces
the capacity of the environment to absorb the carbon released into the
atmosphere.
*5/ By transforming agriculture from an energy producer into an energy
consumer *
On the energy level, the first role of plants and agriculture is to
transform solar energy into energy in the form of sugars and cellulose
that can be directly absorbed in food or transformed by animals into
animal products. This is a natural process which brings energy into the
food chain. However, the industrialization process of agriculture over
the last two centuries has lead to an agriculture which consumes energy
(fertilizers, use of tractors, oil based agrochemicals...).
*The false solutions *
*Agrofuels *(/fuels produced from plants, agriculture and forestry)/ are
often presented as one of the solutions to the current energy crisis.
Under the Kyoto protocol, 20% of the global energy consumption should
come from renewable sources by 2020; this includes agrofuels. However,
leaving aside the insanity of producing food to feed cars while so many
people are starving, industrial agrofuel production will actually
/*increase global warming instead of reducing it*/. In exchange for some
minor and unproven greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil oil (except
for sugercane), agrofuel production will increase intensive monoculture
plantations of oil palm, corn or sugarcane; and will contribute to
deforestation and biodiversity destruction. Intensive agrofuel
production is not a solution to global warming; neither will it solve
the global crisis in the agricultural sector.
*Carbon trading*
Under the Kyoto Protocol and other international schemes "carbon
trading" is presented as a solution for global warming. It is a
privatization of carbon after the privatization of land, air, seeds,
water and other resources. It allows governments to allocate permits to
big industrial polluters so they can trade "rights to pollute" amongst
themselves. Some other programs encourage industrialized countries to
finance cheap carbon dumps such as large-scale plantations in the South
as a way to avoid reducing their own emissions. Large plantations or
natural conservation areas are therefore being created in Asia, Africa
and Latin America kicking communities out of their land and reducing
their right to access their own forests, fields and rivers.
*Genetically modified crops and trees*
Genetically modified trees and crops are now being developed for
agrofuel production. Genetically modified organisms will not solve any
environmental crisis as they themselves pose a risk to the environment
as well as to health and safety. Moreover, they increase corporate
control over seeds, depriving farmers of their right to grow, develop,
select, diversify and exchange their own seeds.
These GM trees and crops are part of the "second generation" of
agrofuels based on cellulose while the first generation is based on the
different forms of sugar from crops. Even when it doesn't use
genetically modified varieties, this "second generation" raises similar
concerns.
*Food sovereignty provides livelihoods to millions and protects life on
earth*
Via Campesina believes that solutions to the current crisis have to
emerge from organized social actors that are developing modes of
production, trade and consumption based on justice, solidarity and
healthy communities. No technological fix will solve the current global
environmental and social disaster.
Sustainable small-scale farming is labor-intensive and requires little
energy use; it can contribute to cooling down the earth :
*
by storing more CO² in soil organic matter through sustainable
production (extensive beef and sheep production on grassland
has a
positive greenhouse gas balance)
*
by replacing nitrogen fertilizers by organic agriculture or/and
cultivating nitrogen-fixing plants which capture nitrogen
directly
from the air
*
by producing biogas from plant and animal waste, while returning
sufficient organic matter to the soil
*
by producing solar energy on all agricultural roofs (with
investment support for the small farms)...
All around the world, we practice and defend small-scale sustainable
family farming and we demand* *food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the
right of peoples to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced
through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to
define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations
and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart
of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and
corporations. Food sovereignty prioritizes local and national economies
and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture,
artisan-style fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production,
distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic
sustainability.
*We urgently demand of local, national and international decision
makers: *
1/ The complete dismantling of agribusiness companies: they are stealing
the land of small producers, producing junk food and creating
environmental disasters.
2/ The replacement of industrialized agriculture and animal production
by small-scale sustainable agriculture supported by genuine agrarian
reform programs.
3/ The promotion of sane and sustainable energy policies. That includes
consuming less energy and producing solar and biogas energy on the farms
instead of heavily promoting agrofuel production as is currently the
case.
4/ The implementation of agricultural and trade policies at local,
national and international levels supporting sustainable agriculture and
local food consumption. This includes the ban on the kinds of subsidies
that lead to the dumping of cheap food on markets.
*For the livelihoods of billions of small producers around the world,*
*For people's health and the planet's survival: *
*We demand food sovereignty and** we are committed to struggle to
achieve it collectively.*