PRESS RELEASE October 6, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: ANURADHA MITTAL
(510) 654-4400 (x108)
Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group
Promoting the Organic Revolution
STOCKHOLM and OAKLAND: The Grupo de Agricultura Organica
(GAO), the Cuban organic farming association, which has been
at the forefront of the country's transition from industrial
to organic agriculture, was named as winner of a major
international prize--the Right Livelihood Award--commonly
known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.'
The Grupo de Agricultura Organica is one of four winners of
the 1999 Right Livelihood Award, chosen from more than 80
candidates from 40 countries. GAO brings together farmers,
farm managers, field experts, researchers, and government
officials to develop and promote organic farming methods.
Its aim is to convince Cuban farmers and policy-makers that
the country's previous high-input farming model was too
import-dependent and environmentally damaging to be
sustainable, and that the organic alternative has the
potential to achieve equally good yields.
"This award is truely an honor for Cuba, for GAO, and for
all the farmers, researchers, and policy makers who have
struggled to make organic farming work in Cuba," said Dr.
Fernado Funes-Aguilar, President of GAO. "We hope that our
efforts will demonstrate to other countries that
conventional chemically-dependent agriculture is not the
only way to feed a country."
During the 1990s Cuba overcame a severe food shortage caused
by the collapse of its trade relations with the former
Soviet-bloc and the on-going U.S. trade embargo. Self-
reliant organic farming played a significant role in
overcoming the crisis.
GAO was founded in 1993 as the Asociacin Cubana de
Agricultura Organica (ACAO), but recently changed its name
when it was legally incorporated as part of the cuban
Association of Agricultural and Forest Technicians (ACTAF).
Over the past five years it has built up an impressive
program of lobbying, training courses, workshops,
documentation centers, demonstration farms, and exchange
visits for farmers, and has held three international
conferences.
"I hope this award will awaken the world to the amazing
achievements Cuba has made in organic farming and food
security", said Martin Bourque, Sustainable Agriculture
Program Director of Food First/The Institute for Food and
Development Policy. "Through their hard work,innovation,
and scientific excellence, GAO and the whole Cuban
agricultural sector have demonstrated that low-input
sustainable agriculture can work on a national scale." Food
First has had a scientific and technical exchange program
with GAO for several years, and will co-sponsor GAO's Fourth
National Encounter on Organic Agriculture in May of the year
2000.
GAO is the first Cuban winner of the Right Livelihood Award.
It shares the prize money of SEK 1,800,000 (approximately
USD 225,000) with a Colombian network, Consolidation of the
Amazon Region (COAMA), working for indigenous rights and
biodiversity, and with Chilean-Spanish lawyer Juan Garces,
who is honored for his untiring efforts over many years to
bring the former Chilean dictator, General Pinochet, to
justice. One of the world's leading promoters of solar
energy, Hermann Scheer, receives an honorary award.
The prizes will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish
Parliament on December 9, the day before the conventional
Nobel Prizes. Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award
has honored more than 80 outstanding individuals and
organizations for work contributing to a better future for
the world.
Peter Rosset, executive director of Food First, said: "This
award shows the enormous potential of sustainable
agriculture, which is so underexploited in other countries.
The whole world should learn from Cuba." Dr. Rosset went on
to say that "in Cuba, organic is for everyone, not just for
those who can afford it."
For more information on GAO or Food First, you can contact
Food First staff members who are available for comment, and
access the following website:
http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/cuba
Grupo de Agricultura Orgnica (GAO)
Tulipn 1011 e/Loma y 47
Apdo. Postal 6236C
Cdigo Postal 10600, Nuevo Vedado
Ciudad de La Habana
CUBA
Phone: +53 7 845 387
Fax. +53 7 845 387
Email: actaf@minag.gov.cu
Right Livelihood Award Administrative Office
P.O. Box 15072 S-104 65 Stockholm SWEDEN
Tel: +46 (0) 8 702 03 40
Fax: +46 (0) 8 702 03 38
E-Mail: info@rightlivelihood.se
http://www.rightlivelihood.se
Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy
398 60th Street Oakland, CA 94618 USA
Phone: (510) 654-4400
Fax: (510) 654-4551
Email: foodfirst@foodfirst.org
http://www.foodfirst.org
###
Anuradha Mittal
Policy Director
Institute for Food and Development Policy - Food First
398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618
USA
Phone: (510) 654-4400
Fax: (510) 654-4551
http://www.foodfirst.org
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