[Agroecologia] anti trangenicos en foz do iguasu !!!

[incense sese]

Informacion (en ingles) y
Pedido para FIRMAR EL MANIFESTO 
del cuentra-encuentro  
en Iguasu del 16 al 18 deste mes
organisado por 
Via Campesina Argentina (MOCASE) 
y el GRR(Grupo de Reflecion Rural) 
en resposta al encuentro: "Soya Sostenible"
organisado por el WWF (World Wildlife Fund) 
al qual estan envitados entre otros Singenta e
Monsanto

http://iguazu.grr.org.ar

obrigada,gracias,thanks,merci
m*
.......................................................
PLEASE CICULATE WIDELY - SORRY FOR CROSSPOSTING

March 1, 2005

Dear people,
Hereby we send you an Open Letter in Support of the
Iguazu Counter
Conference on Soy (16-17 of March, Foz de Iguazu,
Brazil). The Counter
Conference is organised by Via Campesina Argentina
(MOCASE) and GRR
(Grupo
de Reflexion Rural, a progressive agriculture think
tank), in response
to
the 'Round Table on Sustainable Soy', organised at the
same time and
place
at the initiative of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The
main critique of
the
organisers of the Counter Conference on the Round
Table is that it does
not address the real causes of the highly damaging
industrial soy
monocultures, but instead dangerously legitimises the
current 'soy
model'.

With this Open Letter we would like to urge you to
sign the Mission
Statement of the Iguazu Counter Conference. You can
find and sign this
Mission Statement at http://iguazu.grr.org.ar

Attached to this email. we send you the Open Letter
(also below), the
Counter Conference Mission Statement and the list of
adhesions so far.

Thank you for your time,

Kind regards,


Nina Holland
Flip Vonk
Wytze de Lange

A SEED Europe
XminY Solidarity Fund, The Netherlands

Contact:
A SEED Europe
flip en aseed.antenna.nl
+31-20-6682236


****************
text version support letter:

Open Letter to Support the Iguazú Counter Conference:
No Greenwash for the soy industry!

1 March 2005

The world finally seems to be waking up to the
consequences of the
soy-boom. Over the last decades, soy production has
expanded to
millions
of hectares in Argentina, Brazil and now also Paraguay
and Bolivia.
These
four countries already produce 60% of the world soy
supply, and the
acreage is still growing.

The 'soy model'

Soy production takes place in huge units, an intensive
industrial
monoculture using large amounts of pesticides. This
has led to large
scale
destruction of important ecosystems, erosion and
depletion of the soil,
water and soil pollution, and damage to the means of
existence of local
communities. The economies of these countries are
getting completely
dependent on a few export crops, mainly soy, and
therefore of the ups
and
downs of price levels on the globalised markets.
Smaller producers are
quickly outcompeted by large ones, and the large
producers hardly offer
employment. The rural population is hit by poverty and
unemployment,
and
moves to the city slums. The big winners here are
agromultinationals
like
Monsanto, supplying the GM seeds (RoundupReady
soybeans) and
pesticides.
The importing countries, and namely the EU, use soy as
a cheap source
of
animal feed for the intensive livestock production or
'factory
farming'.
In Europe, this causes soil and water pollution,
damage to the life and
structure of the soil, incredible animal suffering and
food scandals.
EU
trade policy supports this practice. In addition, some
of the animal
products are being transported back to Latin American
countries, with
an
EU export subsidy as a bonus. A classic example of
trade distortion
leading to unsustainable production - the 'soy model'.
Current free
trade
negotiations between the EU and Latin America will
further consolidate
this model.

Round Table to Greenwash soy industry

At the initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a
'Round Table on
Sustainable Soy' will be held 17-18 of March, in
Iguazú (Brazil). The
Organising Committee of the Round Table consists of
WWF, André Maggi
Group
(large soy producer), Coop Switzerland, Unilever,
Cordaid (Dutch
development organisation) and FETRAF-SUL (Brazilian
farmers
organisation).
Instead of acknowledging the absurdness of the soy
model, the Round
Table
will aim to make the soy export production
'sustainable'. WWF does
acknowledge the far reaching social and environmental
problems related
to
industrial soy production. Their priority however is
to conserve the
most
biodiversity rich savannas and forests, which is of
course of huge
importance. To this end, a 'better policies scenario'
has been created,
that should lead to less destruction of these areas.

The Round Table is now under severe attack from a
growing number of
organisations, from both Latin America and elsewhere.
The main critique
is
that the Round Table legitimises the soy model. It is
clear that a
decrease in soy production is not an option at the
Round Table; only
measures to at least appear to migitate the impacts,
without addressing
any of the fundamental issues (dangers of soy
monocultures, food
sovereignty, livelihood destruction, dependency on a
single commodity
crop) . Cooperation is being sought with the very
agromultinationals
that
have a vested interest in the continuation of this
system. These
companies
get the opportunity to uplift their 'socially and
environmentally
responsible' image, but without having to fear a
serious challenge to
the
soy model. Several proposals and scenario's that will
be presented
still
have an increased soy production across Latin America
over the coming
decade as a starting point - one even suggests an
almost 3-fold growth!
Although the Dutch Soy Coalition, comprising a broad
range of NGOs,
acknowledges that sustainability and the soy export
model are
contradictory, they are nevertheless accepting
increased soy production
as
inevitable. CORDAID represents the Coalition in the
Organising
Committee
of the Round Table.

Some of the main persons involved in the Round Table
clearly have their
own agenda. The head of WWF Argentina, Hector
Laurence, is at the same
time president of the Argentinean Association of
Agrobusiness (AIMA)
and
vice president of Pioneer Overseas Corporation.
Pioneer is owned by
DuPont
and is one of the world's largest (GM) seed
corporations. The Round
Table's coordinator, Fernando Frydman, was
vice-president of Fundacion
Compromiso, an association claiming to support
non-profit
organisations,
but receiving funds from a large number of
multinationals like
Monsanto,
Citibank, Coca Cola en Mercedes.

Via Campesina Argentina (MOCASE) and GRR (Grupo de
Reflexion Rural, an
Argentinian agriculture thinktank) are organising a
Counter Conference
in
Iguazú, 16-18 March 2005. The goal of the Counter
Conference is to
bring
together many grass roots groups who are critical of
the 'soy model'.
They
will aim to develop alternatives to stop the massive
deforestation and
destruction of natural environments, the loss of
cultural and
agricultural
diversity in rural areas, caused by the industrial soy
monoculture.
We, political and civil society organisations, declare
ourselves in
solidarity with the Counter Conference in Iguazú. The
Round Table gives
corporations a great opportunity to greenwash
themselves, without
committing to real change. The 'soy model' in which
Latin America
produces
soy to serve the European intensive livestock
production, can never be
'sustainable'. Latin America has the right to its own
food production.
Europe should stop to import animal feed, and abandon
its factory
farming
practices.

The list of adhesions for the Counter Conference
Mission Statement is
impressive, and still growing. We urge organisations
in Europe and
beyond
to sign that Mission Statement. You can do so on
http://iguazu.grr.org.ar

Instead of maintaining the current system, the real
causes and culprits
of
the current situation must be addressed or held
responsible. These
include:
* EU institutions maintaining and developing bad trade
rules such as
the
Blair House Agreem (see box below)
* Multinational companies who are the main
beneficiaries and lobbyists
for
this distorted situation, such as Cargill, ADM,
Monsanto, Provimi and
Nidera
* Banks and investors supporting global trade in
animal feed
* New free trade agreements that will further
consolidate the soy model
(see box below)
* Latin American governments who allow forests,
savannas and peoples'
livelihoods to be destroyed
* Latin America's huge debts, making (soy) exports
necessary for
repayment
* The growing consumption of animal products in Europe

*** box ***

EU trade policy

One of the main causes of the current, unsustainable
system, is EU
trade
policy. As part of a EU-US GATTS (now WTO) trade deal
in 1962, the
import
livestock feed (soy) into the EU from the US, and
later also Argentina
and
Brazil, has been duty free and unlimited. The European
milk production
became then concentrated in regions near the big
harbours, and produced
so
much that milk farming in areas with non arable grass
land disappeared.
In
these regions, many farmer livelihoods have been
destroyed. The import
of
animal feed has caused many environmental problems as
pollution of
ground
water, fresh water and coastal marine ecosystems. The
intensive live
stock
production also leads to intolerable animal suffering
and risks for
human
health.
More recently, the so called Blair House Agreement put
a ceiling on
oilseed production in the EU. This prevents the EU
from producing its
own
animal feed, which is essential for food sovereignty
in Latin America
and
Europe.
On top of this, the EU is not only the the biggest
importer of soy from
Latin America, but also the biggest exporter of dairy
products to that
region. Huge export subsidies are being paid to the
European milk
industry
to conquer foreign markets, thereby destroying local
production in
those
areas. The EU is currently negotiating a bilateral
free trade agreement
with Mercosur (a trade bloc involving Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay and
Uruguay), which will further consolidate Latin
America's role to
deliver
agricultural products, while serving as a market for
European
industrial
goods and services.

*** end box ***

For more information about the Counter Conference:
http://iguazu.grr.org.ar On this site you can sign
directly to support
the
Mission Statement of the Counter Conference. You will
also find a list
of
adhesions so far, and the booklet 'Greenwashing the
soy industry'.

For more information about the WWF Round Table:
www.sustainablesoy.org

For more information about soy:
www.aseed.net, www.wervel.be


Sending organisations:
XminY Solidariteitsfonds
A SEED Europe

Contact: soy en aseed.antenna.nl



		
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