Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid SeedsTruthout: 'A new earthquake' is what peasant farmer Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, World Environment Day...
Jean-Baptiste called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti 'a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds... and on what is left of our environment in Haiti.' Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)...
Monsanto's history has long drawn ire from environmentalists, health advocates and small farmers, going back to its production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war... Together with Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer, Monsanto controls more than half of the world's seeds... Monsanto is also one of the leading manufacturers of GMOs...
Via Campesina, the world's largest confederation of farmers, with member organizations in more than 60 countries, has called Monsanto one of the 'principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty for all peoples.'... As Monsanto and other multinationals control an ever larger share of land and agriculture, they force small farmers out of their land and jobs...
'Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and our agriculture,' Jean-Baptiste said... 'We have the potential to make our lands produce enough to feed the whole population and even to export certain products. The policy we need for this to happen is food sovereignty, where the country has a right to define its own agricultural policies, to grow first for the family and then for local market, to grow healthy food in a way which respects the environment and Mother Earth.'
