Page 37 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 24
P. 37
Food health
without territory and without seeds in all three countries at and farmers’ seed system by
history. We face a coordinated once. forwarding seed commoning as an
political and technocratic alternative to the UPOV-like laws
crusade to impose uniform and - In Thailand, civil society in the country.
rigid laws and regulations in organisations are fighting hard
favour of agroindustry. There is against free trade agreements - Internationally, peasant and
a determined effort to discredit that impose UPOV instead of other social movements are also
people’s historical practices and protecting the rights of farmers trying to get the UN Declaration
ancestral indigenous peasant and other rural communities to on the Rights of Peasants and
knowledge in order to make maintain and use their local seeds. Other People Working in Rural
us dependent on corporations. Areas (UNDROP) translated into
Communities who have resisted -In Indonesia, farmers and civil enforceable national laws.
have faced criminalisation, society organisations continue
repression, and even to reject UPOV, which is being We are determined to resist the
imprisonment imposed through free trade dispossession of seeds from
negotiations and under pressure the hands of the people. We
Whether in Africa, Asia, Europe from countries like Japan. vigorously oppose registration,
or the Americas, communities are https://www.youtube.com/ certification, patenting and
fighting this pressure and we are watch?v=J4pD_yZG1lc marketing schemes, treaties,
united and mobilised to actively conventions, national and
support them. -In the Philippines, farmers, international laws and legal
scientists, concerned citizens frameworks such as UPOV and
- In Benin, social movements have and civil society organizations other seed laws that promote the
stopped the national parliament filed an environmental case to dispossession of the common
from discussing a law proposal the Supreme Court to stop the goods and knowledge of our
to join UPOV, the Union for the commercial propagation of the peoples.
Protection of New Plant Varieties. genetically modified golden rice
UPOV sets global standards for that is patented by Syngenta and We, as peoples in resistance,
seed privatisation in favour of other agrochemical corporations. guardians of the seeds, will
transnationals like Monsanto/ Moreover, Filipino farmers are continue keeping, sharing and
Bayer, Syngenta and Corteva. spearheading the fight for the reproducing our seeds so our
recognition and strengthening presence will germinate from our
- In Guatemala, Indigenous of farmers’ rights to seeds roots.
peoples are in the streets
demanding that their
government’s proposed bill
to adopt UPOV standards be
scrapped as well. They call it “the
Monsanto Law” and its rejection
is part of an ongoing nationwide
strike.
- In El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras, groups are working
together to prevent the adoption
of a new ruling that would open
the doors to genetically modified Local Afrikan farmer harvesting vegetables.
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