Out standing in their fields: farmers worldwide collectively take a stand against genetically modified organisms and repression

On April 17th of this year farmers around the world made the news as they took to the streets, engaged in land occupations, filled auditoriums and local halls, held public meetings, press conferences, briefings with governmental officials, and teach-ins. In many places, farm families were joined by urban-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs), environmentalists and human rights activists. What, you might well ask, was all the fuss about?

International Day of Farmers' Struggle

On April 17th, 1996, nineteen peasants (members of the Movimiento Sem Terra, or MST) were killed in the small city of Eldorado do Carajas in the northern state of Para, Brazil. At this same time, MST leaders had joined farm leaders from around the world who had gathered in Mexico for the Via Campesina's second international conference. The Via Campesina denounced this brutal act and has continued to this day to pressure the Brazilian government to conduct a full investigation and bring the perpetrators to trial. To commemorate the massacre of the 19 Brazilean peasants the Via Campesina declared April 17th the International Day of Farmers' Struggle to focus the world's attention on what is happening in the countryside and to mobilize actions against all forms of oppression of rural peoples.

This year Via Campesina farmers throughout Asia, the Americas and Europe, marked April 17th by joining together in protest against the imposition of genetically modified (GM) technology and the continuing repression of farm leaders.

Struggle over seeds

Farmer protest against GM technology is not new. In the early 1990s the Karnataka State Farmers Association (KRRS) issued Quit India notices to Cargill politely informing the seed company that their services and products were not needed in India. When Cargill refused to leave the state of Karnataka, the KRRS engaged in direct action and ransacked Cargill offices. In France, in 1998 Jose Bove and other leaders of the Confederation Paysanne destroyed Novartis GM maize seed in Nerac and one year later did the same to GM rice growing near Montpellier. Last year, the KRRS carried out Operation Cremation Monsanto involving the burning of cotton plants sending yet another clear message that Indian farmers are rejecting GM seeds. And, just a couple of months ago in Brazil, over 1,500 members of the MST occupied of a huge tract of land (near the city of Joia) belonging to a large landowner who was planting GM soy prior to the Government of Brazil's recent decision to allow GMOs.

Farmers everywhere are quite aware that seeds, like land, are the primary means of production and that "whoever controls the seeds, controls the farmer." The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights and regional trade agreements have greatly enhanced the concentration of ownership and control over GM technology and seeds worldwide. Now, the top seed companies control about 30 percent of the world's commercial seed markets, and one company (Monsanto, now owned by Pharmacia) sold the seeds that covered 94 percent of the land planted to genetically-modified crops in 2000.

The USA Department of Agriculture is working with Delta and Pine Land to produce and promote genetically engineered "terminator" seeds, and recent reports claim that the United States and Argentina are threatening smaller countries like Bolivia, Croatia and Sri Lanka with WTO actions if they adopt national legislation to ban GM organisms. The imposition of GM technology is affecting farmers everywhere - even in places where it's illegal! The recent discovery that up to 60 percent of isolated maize crops in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla in Mexico are contaminated with GM corn is a clear indication of just how pernicious GM technology is. Soon the gene banks in Mexico, birthplace of the original corn varieties, may also be contaminated. And, once it has entered the environment there is no way to isolate it.

The struggle over seeds is intensifying as peasants and farmers everywhere are refusing to give ownership and control of seeds to transnational corporations. Indeed, farmers are working in more creative and innovative ways. Throughout the Americas farmers and activists, spurred by the recent news of GM contamination in Mexico, engaged in a week-long continental campaign against GM technology. In the Netherlands, Via Campesina leaders from Indonesia and Bangladesh joined activists from the international network Resistance is Fertile and Dutch farmers to "alter" a GM field test site and convert it into a sustainable biodiversity site.

As the Austrian government is opening up discussion of bio-technology and food, farmers there presented hundreds of potted forget-me-nots to members of parliament to remind politicians of the 1.2 million people who had signed the Austrian referendum against gene technology five years earlier. In Quebec, the newly formed Union Paysanne announced a major demonstration to oppose the industrial model of agriculture, and to gather support to build an environmentally safe and farmer-friendly alternative model.

In Brussels the Coordination Paysanne Europeenne took to the streets to demand a stop to the repression of farm leaders who are currently imprisoned for their involvement in the struggle over resources. And, in some countries like Guatemala and Brazil, the struggle over seeds is fought alongside the struggle for land. In Guatemala, by nightfall on April 17th indigenous peasant organizations had occupied 14 fincas (private land holdings) covering over 5,076 hectares. The land occupations involved over 1,250 farming families. In Brazil, land occupations and demonstrations in support of on-going land occupations took place in nine states.

Also important is the fact that farmers are no longer restricting their actions within national borders; they are crossing international borders to engage in direct action on foreign soil. For example, last year at the World Social Summit held in Porto Alegre farmers engaged in their first cross border direct action as French, Basque and Indonesian farmers joined their Brazilian counterparts in uprooting three hectares of Monsanto GM soya and occupying the laboratories and stores where seeds were distributed.

And closer to home, on April 17, 2001 the National Farmers Union in Canada and the National Family Farm Coalition in the United States announced they are exploring joint actions to ban the introduction of Monsanto's GM wheat.

By working through the Via Campesina farmers everywhere are overcoming the isolation they once felt as they organized at the local level. Now, they still organize at the local level and nationally but link that to international mobilization. Now farmers at the local level know that they are linked to farmers engaged in similar struggles somewhere else in the world. This year on April 17th farmers mobilized in over 30 countries. Clearly, farmers are no. longer alone.

RELATED ARTICLE: Via Campesina

The Via Campesina is an international farm movement embracing organizations of peasants, small and medium scale farmers, rural women, farm workers and indigenous agrarian communities.

Since its inception in 1993 the movement has grown rapidly and now represents millions and millions of farming families in many parts of the world. Currently. 82 farm organizations from 27 countries belong to the Via Campesina.

Two Canadian organizations are part of this international farm movement: the National Farmers Union (NFU) is a founding member and Quebec's newly formed Union Paysanne is now a participating organization.

Annette Desmarais used to farm near Vawn, Saskatchewan and now helps coordinate the NFU's international work.

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